


Out of the Dark

by breeisonfire



Series: Shutter 'verse [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Fluff, Hunters, Hurt Derek, Hurt Isaac, Hurt Scott, Hurt Sheriff Stilinski, I just hurt everyone, M/M, Minor Character Deaths, Pack Feels, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Torture, sterek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-11 23:39:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 52,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeisonfire/pseuds/breeisonfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a familiar face has hunters abduct Derek, the pack and friends go into overdrive trying to find him. When they do, it causes more problems than it solves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. So first thing's first: This is different from my other stories in this series. For one, it doesn't focus on Stiles and Derek. There is Sterek -- lots of it -- but it's not the focus, and there are actually scenes without them. For two, this is way longer. It has nine chapters already, and I'm not finished yet. I also have absolutely no idea where or how this is going to end. It's also a lot more loaded.
> 
> The crazy thing is, this started out as an excuse to have Derek curl up in Stiles's lap and it just kind of snowballed. There's so much more happening in this one than the others, and it involves nearly all of the characters in the series.
> 
> Beta'd by the wonderful [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

It wasn’t like Sheriff John Stilinski wasn’t used to the whole ‘Stiles is in a werewolf pack’ thing. It wasn’t. He was dealing with it. It was just…

No, he wasn’t used to it. At all. He’s not sure he’ll ever be used to it.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. John actually likes the idea of the pack, of the five extra kids he’d apparently gained (well, four; Scott was technically already a part of their family). There’s a certain kind of reassurance for him, knowing that Stiles had the pack. He’ll _never_ stop worrying about Stiles; that’s his job, as a parent. But it helps, knowing he has three werewolves, a hunter, and Lydia looking after him, too.

But sometimes, the idea of _werewolves_ and _banshees_ and _hunters_ drive John insane. Usually, when they end up in some kind of trouble. Stiles had once sat him down and outlined pretty much everything he and the others had been involved in. The list had been pretty freaking terrifying, and John’s pretty sure Stiles glossed over most of the facts. At the end of this conversation, Stiles had apologized for lying to him, and ended with, “I just thought if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t get hurt.”

Which falls directly in with Stiles’s personality, and though John had given him a stern ‘you’re in trouble, son’ look that he had so much practice with, he wasn’t actually mad at Stiles for not telling him. As long as there was no more lying.

And there hadn’t been. Which was why John was currently being driven insane by the pack. It had been quiet since the witches a month before, and the most interesting thing that happened was when an abandoned warehouse had caught fire and partially exploded, burning for hours before they could get it under control (John had felt horrible for all of the firefighters there, Derek included; they had looked _wrecked_ afterwards). John had felt at ease enough to stop making Stiles check in with him every single night, although he was pretty sure Scott was never going to stop that new tradition in the pack.

Which is why it concerned everyone when Derek suddenly stopped responding. It started out with him not checking in with Scott after the pack had met up for dinner at Lydia’s one night. Scott had called Stiles, a conversation John had had the lovely privilege being in the room for, and he’d been the one who had to talk Stiles down from his impending panic attack as he dialed Derek’s number and there was no answer.

Of course, this only made Stiles feel worse, and he’d started texting him every couple of seconds. John had forced Stiles to stop, reasoning that Derek had to have time to respond. But he hadn’t, and the overprotective streak in Stiles had gone into overdrive. He’d said he was going over to Derek’s apartment to check on him, and John had stopped him, telling him he was in no shape to drive. He drove Stiles instead. Stiles had looked around in the parking lot and noted that Derek’s Camaro wasn’t there before turning and going into the building anyway. John had sighed and followed Stiles up to Derek’s apartment, which was where they were now.

“You have a key to Derek’s apartment?” John is not at all surprised to learn this as Stiles opens the door.

“We all do,” Stiles answers, somewhat distracted. “Derek gave all of us one just in case we needed somewhere to go.”

Which is a good idea, and John approves of it as they walk into the apartment. He’s only been to Derek’s apartment once before, for the birthday party the previous week, and he’d thought it had been very nice. It’s still nice, and very homey, and Stiles seems perfectly at ease as he walks through, drops his jacket on the couch, and calls out, “Derek?”

The apartment’s silent. Stiles mumbles something that sounds like a swear word, and starts down the hallway, clearly not worried about invading Derek’s privacy. John stays in the living room, feeling very off-center in his son’s boyfriend’s apartment, and listens to Stiles go through each room methodically. He doesn’t try to stop him, because he knows how Stiles gets and getting in his way will only make him more upset, so he pulls out his phone and dials Scott’s number.

“Sheriff?” Scott answers, clearly confused. “What’s up?”

“Stiles wanted to check out Derek’s apartment to see if he was there,” John cuts straight to the chase. “He’s not. And his car isn’t here, either.”

“Shit,” Scott says. “I mean -- no, I mean shit. Is Stiles okay?”

“He’s currently checking the entire apartment,” John says. “So, better than I was expecting.”

Scott lets out a breath. “Okay, Isaac and I will be right there, we can see if he made it home at all earlier.”

“Okay,” John says, and as he hangs up, Stiles comes into the living room, looking very much like he’s about to outright panic.

“Find anything?” John asks, if only to get Stiles talking. A silent Stiles is never a good Stiles.

Stiles shakes his head. “It doesn’t look like he’s been here since he left to come over to our house earlier.”

“Scott and Isaac are on their way,” John says, hoping to calm Stiles down a bit. It works, but only marginally, and only temporarily.

Scott and Isaac are there five minutes later, and Isaac’s on the phone, looking grim.

“Yeah, okay,” he says. “We’ll call you back. Thanks.”

He hangs up and announces, “Lydia says Derek’s not at her house, but his Camaro is still out front.”

Stiles pales, and Scott growls quietly, like he’s pissed off, and John takes a second to remember that Scott is an Alpha, _Derek’s_ Alpha, so of course he’s pissed off. He’d been pissed off when Stiles was missing, why wouldn’t he be pissed off when Derek was missing?

The answer to that probably requires more familiarity with pack dynamics and supernatural laws than John has, so he settles for dropping it and watching Scott and Isaac sniff around the apartment.

“He hasn’t been here for hours,” Isaac finally says, and Scott nods. His eyes are tinged with red, and John, though he’s not part of the pack, recognizes Scott’s Alpha mode stance. He’s standing taller, and the way he holds his head is different. This is another thing John’s very sure he’s never going to get used to. He still has a hard time connecting the Alpha werewolf to the scrawny asthmatic kid he’d known for years.

Still, he _is_ glad to see it, and says, “Anything I can do to help, just ask.”

Scott nods in acknowledgement and looks at Isaac. “We should go back to Lydia’s and see if we can pick up his trail there.”

Stiles clears his throat and says in an only slightly shaky voice, “If someone took him, she could be in danger. They know where she lives.”

 _That_ is a good point, and Scott’s eyes flash fully red for a second before he nods and says, “Right. So let’s hurry.”

“While we’re going, you should call your mom,” Stiles adds. “She’s on a shift, right? So warn her Derek might pop up there, if something happened. Maybe he’s already there.”

Also a good point. John remembers Derek saying Stiles was the detective of the pack, and can’t help feeling a bit of pride at this. Maybe they had an advantage this time, outside of banshees.

Somehow he’s talked into driving Stiles’s Jeep to Lydia’s with Stiles in the passenger seat. He’s not sure how it happens, but he doesn’t fight it as they pull up at Lydia’s.

Allison and Lydia are standing in the driveway, both of them looking worried. Allison’s armed, with a crossbow in her hand, and Lydia’s got her arms crossed, staring at Derek’s car, a little ways down the street. Scott and Isaac had beat them there, and are already walking to the girls. Stiles throws the door open and bolts across the grass to the group. John follows, though much slower.

“...didn’t get close so we didn’t disrupt any scents,” Allison is saying as John gets into earshot. “I called my dad and asked him if he’d seen any signs of anything. He hadn’t, but he’s going to look into it and call me back if he finds anything.”

Scott’s nodding, and John is feeling weirdly out of place as he watches Scott turn to Lydia and ask, “When did he leave?”

“I don’t know,” Lydia admits, and she looks like she feels guilty. “I think he was waiting for Stiles, and I was talking to Stiles about our science project, and I didn’t see either of them leave.”

Stiles makes a pained noise and says, “He was waiting for me. We made plans for tomorrow night. And then I left. I didn’t see him get into his car.”

Now Stiles looks guilty and John sighs, too quietly for Stiles to hear, but both Isaac and Scott glance at him. Then Scott says, “It’s not your fault. Either of you. You didn’t know.”

Lydia just shrugs helplessly. Stiles doesn’t indicate he heard it at all. He’s looking at the car, like if he stares hard enough at it, Derek will magically appear next to it. And to be honest, John really wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Who knows what else is possible?

“Come on,” Scott says to Isaac. “We should find a trail and find him fast.”

Isaac nods, and they both start towards Derek’s car. Stiles, Allison, and Lydia immediately follow, although they’re staying back, out of the way. John follows them, and wonders when his life got turned completely upside down, when he, the _police officer_ , feels more out of place at what’s looking like a crime scene than a bunch of underage teenagers. He thinks if this keeps up, he may have to quit his job.

He’s watching the kids closely, trying to see how they’re reacting, so he definitely sees it when both Scott and Isaac rear back in surprise, and take several steps away from the car.

“What?” Stiles asks immediately, sounding alarmed.

“Wolfsbane,” Scott’s covering his nose and looks annoyed. “A lot of wolfsbane. We can’t get any closer. You guys shouldn’t, either, it’s poisonous to you, too.”

Which thoroughly pisses Stiles off, although his anger is not directed at Scott. Instead, he bites out, “Hunters.”

“Hunters?” Lydia questions.

“Has to be,” Allison says. “Wolfsbane isn’t easy to get a hold of. Most places don’t even keep it in stock. There are only a few places you can buy it, and most hunters just have their own stash. We have a good size stash, and we used to sell it, but we don’t anymore.”

Stiles looks at her. “Are there any hunters here we haven’t met before?”

“I don’t know,” Allison says. “I can try to find out, but...after the whole thing with Kate, and with Gerard, and our retirement, my dad’s lost a lot of standing in the hunting community. Enough so that if hunters _did_ come to town with the intention of hunting, they probably wouldn’t check in with him, even though that’s protocol. We can do some digging around, but not much. Not without setting off other hunters’ radar.”

“What if you said you were getting back in the game?” Stiles tries. “Rebuilding the Argent name?”

Allison shrugs. “I’ll run it past my dad. We’ll try, Stiles.”

The last part is said with conviction, and John can hear the promise being made to Stiles. His son nods and gives her a grateful look before turning back to Scott.

“What do we do, then?” Lydia asks.

John clears his throat and says, “You could file a missing person’s report.”

Everyone turns to look at him, their expressions ranging from confusion (Isaac and Scott) to surprise (Allison and Lydia) to understanding (Stiles).

“You guys can’t get close,” Stiles turns to Scott and Isaac. “And we don’t have the tools to make it so you can. But the police could. They can handle poisonous substances.”

John nods. “We’ll have to impound Derek’s car, though.”

“He won’t like that,” Stiles says. “But it’s not like we have much of a choice.”

“I thought we had to wait 24 hours?” Scott says in an unsure tone.

“I think we can make an exception,” John says. “Derek’s a fireman now, so most of the officers know him. He’s pretty dependable. And at that big fire at the warehouse, he actually saved one of my deputies. Believe me, they’ll want to help.”

Derek hadn’t told the story of the warehouse fire, judging by their surprised looks, but they shake it off quickly, and they split up again. Scott instills a rule where none of them can be alone, and asks John to be a part of that rule, with Stiles. He agrees, to Stiles’s annoyance, but he stops protesting when he realizes that it means he gets to come with John to the station and help the investigation.

They stop by the house to get into John’s cruiser instead of the Jeep, and then they head to the station, where John gets out and explains the situation to some of his deputies. Stiles shifts nervously just behind him, close enough John can actually feel him, but he doesn’t say anything.

Then John has to make Stiles give a statement, which he does without complaint, and then John and a few other officers head to the Martins’ house to inspect the area.

John had explained they had an anonymous tip that there was a poisonous substance around the car (Stiles had involuntarily made an extremely annoyed noise that no one but John had apparently heard), so the area is being tested when they get back there. Lydia’s mom is standing outside, looking confused, as are her next door neighbors, and John gets the fun task of explaining to her what was going on. She immediately calls to check on Lydia, and John unconsciously glances behind him, where Stiles is standing, pretending he isn’t listening.

It takes several hours before the car is cleared to be moved, and someone finds Derek’s phone on the sidewalk. By this point, Stiles is at the cruiser, on his phone talking to someone, and John is feeling exhausted. He heads to the cruiser and gets in.

“What would bring them to town?” he hears Stiles say, and throws a look at his son. Stiles takes his phone away from his ear and puts it on speaker.

Chris Argent is speaking. “They have connections to my father. A lot of hunters still respect him. They don’t know the story behind his bite. They think he was bit while fighting and his body is rejecting the bite, and he’s still alive to pass on his knowledge.”

“ _What_?”

John didn’t know Stiles had the ability to inject _that_ much anger, sarcasm, and disdain into one word. He’s almost impressed, but thoroughly confused, and says, “What’s going on?”

“We think hunters are in town,” Allison’s voice comes over the phone. “We’re still gathering information. It’s not easy. Gerard is further up the food chain in the hunting community, and since everything that’s gone down, we’ve fallen even lower.”

“You think these hunters could have taken Derek, then?” John says.

“Almost positive,” and now Scott’s voice comes on. Apparently this is a conference call. “But without the scent at Derek’s car, we can’t track them, and we can’t find Derek’s scent, either. And we have school in a couple of hours, and we can’t all just miss or we’ll get my dad back on our trail.”

John feels a brief burst of irritation at the mention of Agent McCall before pushing it aside and quickly prioritizing. “I’ll call Stiles in, he can miss a day.”

He doesn’t miss the grateful look Stiles gives him, but doesn’t acknowledge it. He’s fairly certain sending Stiles to school would end in him inevitably ditching. Better to already know where he is than to have to hunt him down later.

“I have a biology test, I can’t miss,” Scott sounds unbelievably frustrated.

“Oh, crap,” Allison says. “I forgot about that.”

“I can miss,” Isaac announces.

“You’re not going on your own,” Scott says sharply, and John sees Stiles flinch at Scott’s Alpha voice. John’s only seen him pull rank a few times. He knows Scott doesn’t like to.

“Sorry,” Scott says a second later, and Stiles relaxes slightly.

“We can come pick Isaac up,” John says. “He can stay with us. It’ll be good to have his nose, if we get anything on the hunters.”

“I’ll start calling around,” Chris says. “I have a few contacts left that don’t like Gerard.”

“Everyone keep your phones on,” Scott says. “Check in every hour. _I mean it_.”

“Yes, sir,” Stiles deadpans.

“Shut it,” Scott responds immediately. John’s glad to see at least some of the humor is still there. He knows Stiles is worried about Derek, knows the pack changes the instincts there, but it’s good to see Stiles at least trying to be normal. Whether because he’s got faith they’ll find Derek, or because they’ve got a sort of plan, John doesn’t know, but he doesn’t care. He’s got a feeling he’s going to need Stiles’s help to find Derek.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are so awesome, okay. Thank you for all of the support!
> 
> So this chapter came into existence because I felt like I've really been ignoring Isaac, and I didn't want to, because I like Isaac. Also, I apparently ship Isaac/Cora, which was not something I realized before I started this verse. This chapter also has some more of my headcanons on how packs work. I don't think 3b canon will really be involved in this, except maybe some characters, like Parrish. He doesn't have a first name either, this is so frustrating.
> 
> (Also, did you guys see the episode? IT WAS FILLED WITH SO MANY GOOD THINGS WITH SCOTT AND STILES HUGGING DEREK HELPING SHERIFF TEAMING UP WITH THEM I JUST REALLY LIKED IT OKAY)
> 
> This was beta'd by the amazing [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

Isaac has never liked cars, to be honest. They’re small and enclosed, and he doesn’t do well with either of those things. When he’s with the pack, he can usually deal, because he trusts them to protect him, but right now? He’s in a police car. In the back. It just bring up so many bad memories, and he really doesn’t like it.

The only reason he’s somewhat calm is because when Isaac had hesitated getting in, Stiles had wordlessly climbed in the back with him. Sheriff Stilinski hadn’t said anything, and likely wasn’t going to, but he had rolled down the front windows of the cruiser, despite the slight chill in the air.

In order to distract himself, he turns to Stiles and says, “You seem way too comfortable back here.”

Stiles, despite the obvious tension in him, actually lets out a laugh, and the Sheriff does, too.

“That’s because he and Scott took the term ‘partner in crime’ far too literally,” he says.

Isaac has to grin at that. “Why am I not surprised?” he says.

“You know us too well,” Stiles says. That’s probably true. Isaac doesn’t mind. He likes having a pack and not being alone.

“So what’s going on now?” he asks.

“We’re heading back to the station,” Stilinski says. “And when we get there, the two of you are going to have to stay in my office, or there are going to be a lot of questions I don’t know how to answer. And if you hear anything, you tell me, okay?”

“Believe me, if we think it’ll help, you’ll know,” Stiles says. Isaac makes a noise of agreement.

It’s quiet for a while, and Isaac does what he always does when he’s anxious; he focuses on the pack bond, and tries to feel out each member of the pack. He can feel Stiles right next to him, full of nervous energy and worry, and just barely keeping himself together. He moves his focus to Scott, his Alpha, extremely agitated and frustrated. Allison feels like that dangerous calm, the one that means she’s actually unsettled and ready to kill someone. Lydia’s angry, the way she always is when she’s presented with a problem she can’t solve.

And Derek feels...out of reach. Distant. Like he’s on the edges, in Isaac’s peripherals, and it doesn’t feel at all right to Isaac. He’s pretty sure it means Derek is unconscious, which is worrying enough. But there’s the underlying level of discomfort that Isaac usually associates with physical pain. Physical pain isn’t an emotion, so they can’t actually feel when another pack member is in it, but there are other emotions it comes hand-in-hand with, and Isaac’s learned quickly how to pick those up.

He doesn’t feel any better after that, so he picks out Stiles’s heartbeat and starts listening to it. It’s not steady, but Isaac’s pretty sure he’s not in danger of dying anytime soon and is just worked up. It’s not calming at all, though, so he focuses on Sheriff Stilinski’s instead.

His _is_ steady, and sounds healthy, and Isaac takes a second to applaud Stiles’s health regiment, because clearly he knows what he’s doing. He listens to the heartbeat for a few minutes, calming himself down.

He’s finally calming down when Stiles suddenly breaks his trance by saying, “Why would Gerard send hunters after Derek?”

Isaac actually jumps, and panics for a second until Stiles puts a hand on his shoulder, grounding him and reminding him where he is. He gives him an apologetic look, which Stiles just waves off.

“Isn’t he the one who bit Gerard?” Stilinski asks from the front seat as Isaac catches his breath.

“Technically,” Stiles says. “But the outcome was Scott’s fault. Derek didn’t even know about his plan. I didn’t even know about his plan. I would have talked Scott out of it, instead of just explaining to him why his plan was so epically wrong _after_ the fact.”

Isaac remembers the apology Scott had delivered to Derek a few days after the Gerard Incident. It had been sincere, and Stiles had been there, glaring at the ground. At the time, Isaac had been convinced Stiles didn’t want anything to do with Derek and his pack. Now he knows better, and it doesn’t surprise him that Stiles had been the one to make Scott see reason. He’s glad, because Derek had been really quiet and upset those first few days, and when Scott had admitted he’d been wrong, Derek had accepted the apology, and things had slowly returned to normal.

“So you think if that were the reason he’d go after Scott,” Stilinski says.

“Gerard has this weird thing for Scott,” Stiles says. “During the whole Darach thing, Gerard told him and Allison a story, and made Scott take his pain for it. I think Gerard would go after Scott even if he didn’t really have a reason. The only thing protecting Scott from that jackass is his True Alpha status. It’s an unknown factor to Gerard, and Gerard plans everything out with careful precision. To an extremely creepy extent.”

Isaac shivers. “And he’s manipulative.”

“Right,” Stiles nods at him. “He manipulated Allison into helping him, and if Chris hadn’t had some sort of immunity to Gerard’s bullshit, we _really_ would have been screwed during the whole kanima situation. But none of this explains why Gerard’s going after Derek. There’s some kind of play here that we’re missing.”

“Maybe because he bit Allison’s mom?” Isaac suggests hesitantly.

Stiles shakes his head. “Gerard didn’t care then, he doesn’t care now. Gerard plays for himself only. He puts up a good front, but it’s just that: a front. Otherwise we would have had so much more trouble because of Kate.”

Then, Stiles starts, and sits up straight. He looks at Isaac. “When’s the last time anyone saw Peter?”

Isaac doesn’t question Stiles’s change of direction and thinks about it. He’s not sure when he last saw Peter.

“Um,” he says. “The last time I really remember seeing Peter, we were getting Cora out of the hospital.”

Stiles blinks at him. “That long ago? Shit, I don’t remember seeing Peter after that night, either.”

“What night was this?” Stilinski asks.

Isaac answers for Stiles, knowing he doesn’t like to think about it. “The night Jennifer took you.”

“Oh,” Stilinski says. “That was _months_ ago.”

“Yeah, I’m aware,” Stiles sounds annoyed. “Peter disappeared the night of the eclipse. Then Derek and Cora left, and we just assumed he went with them. Except he didn’t. Derek said that it was only him and Cora on their road trip.”

“So now we have two missing Hales,” Stilinski says. Isaac feels a bit of panic.

“Cora?” he says, looking at Stiles.

“I don’t think Gerard knows about her,” Stiles says. Then he hesitates. “But maybe you should warn her, just in case. And maybe she and her pack can do some digging? So we can figure out what Gerard wants. There has to be a trail _somewhere_.”

“How many resources do you have in the supernatural world?” Stilinski asks as Isaac starts texting Cora. He keeps his ears open, to keep track of the conversation.

“Honestly?” Stiles sighs. “Almost none. Deaton. Cora. That’s about it. Allison and her dad have some contacts, but not many, and Derek has some old family friends, but only he knows how to get a hold of them.”

Isaac can see Stilinski frown in the mirror. “Maybe that’s part of the problem.”

“What?” Stiles looks confused. Isaac’s glad he’s not the only one.

“There’s politics at play here,” Stilinski says. “You guys are a small, inexperienced pack in a supernatural hot zone, correct?”

“That is correct,” Stiles is going to hurt himself holding back his frustration, Isaac just knows it.

“You guys need to be networking,” Stilinski says. “Scott’s a True Alpha. That’s a rare thing, right? Lydia’s a banshee. The Hales used to be a big family in the supernatural world. Allison’s an Argent.”

“What are you saying?” Stiles asks slowly.

“I’m saying _use that to your advantage_ ,” Stilinski says. “Play the politics. Make allies. Find people you can trust to get information from, people you trust to warn you if something’s coming your way so you guys can’t be blindsided.”

“Dad, we’re a bunch of teenagers and Derek,” Stiles says. “Allison’s an _Argent_ , one of the biggest hunting families in the world. No one would trust her. We don’t have anyone to do that. Scott doesn’t do politics, Allison would rather go in guns blazing, Derek has the social skills of a rock, Isaac’s not exactly well-adjusted -- no offense, neither am I -- and the only one of us with any sort of skills at that is Lydia, and none of us are willing to let her go anywhere alone in case she goes into a trance or gets attacked or something.”

“What about you?” Isaac says.

“Ha! Yeah. No. I don’t make good first impressions.”

“Well, maybe you could send Lydia to meetings and have some of you be backup, without having to say anything,” Stilinski says.

“That counts Stiles out,” Isaac mutters, and sees Stiles’s lips twitch.

“Derek’s good at the strong and silent thing,” Stiles says. “And he is a Hale, that’s true. And Isaac is tall, at least. Leave the scarves, though, dude.”

Isaac mock-glares at him before looking outside and seeing the station right there. He waits for Stilinski to open the door, and Stiles slides out after them. He looks at Isaac and says, “We should check in with Scott.”

Isaac glances at the time and nods. Scott had decided that they would use Snapchat to check in, so they could know for sure that it was them sending it. It was a good theory, even if Stiles had spent the first five minutes after Scott presented it explaining why it didn’t actually work. Isaac was pretty sure Stiles was overthinking it.

They take the pictures while standing in the sheriff’s office, and then Stiles starts pacing while Isaac sits down, watching him. He’s wondering how he doesn’t get dizzy when Stiles starts thinking out loud.

“Maybe they took Derek because they think he has some sort of information,” he says. “I mean, he _did_ grow up in the supernatural world, unlike the rest of us. And sometimes he forgets that he knows things the rest of us don’t, so he _could_ have some secret knowledge or something. The Hales would be considered experts in all things werewolf, I suppose. Gerard has a grudge against them, anyway. Maybe he took them to see if they know how to heal him. Maybe one of them does know how to heal him. Maybe --.”

Stiles cuts himself off, and Isaac’s about to ask why when he realizes exactly why.

Derek’s awake. Isaac can feel it, and he knows Stiles can feel it, because Derek is panicked, disoriented, and angry. Isaac can feel the discomfort that means that Derek’s in physical pain is growing, and lets out a whine, unable to hold it back. Stilinski looks up, and Isaac knows his eyes are yellow. He has no idea what will happen if he accidentally wolfs out, and he wonders if Scott is able to control it at all, because _that_ would be a disaster.

Stiles is hyperventilating, and Isaac’s instincts tell him to take care of pack. If he can’t get to Derek, he’ll just have to take care of Stiles, and Isaac grabs Stiles’s arm and pulls him down on the bench next to him. He forgets about social norms and the fact that they’re in public, and sits as close to Stiles as he can without setting him off. Stiles reacts with wolf instincts, and moves closer, using Isaac to ground himself. Isaac lets him, knowing it’s the only thing he can do at the moment, and looks back up at Stilinski, who is looking at them with a kind of resigned curiosity.

“Derek’s awake,” Isaac says by way of explanation. “We can feel him.”

Stilinski’s expression clears, and he nods.

Before either of them can say anything, Isaac hears a phone go off, and Stiles, still hyperventilating but regaining control, pulls it out, glances at the screen, and hands it to Isaac. He gestures to it, and Isaac knows he means for him to answer it. He looks at the screen and sees **Argent** on the screen, so he hits answer.

“Hello?”

“Isaac?” Chris sounds confused.

“Hang on,” Isaac says, and puts the phone on speaker. “Okay, now go. Stiles and his dad are right here.”

“Okay,” Chris says. “First off, yes. It is Gerard. I just got a call saying he was missing from the facility he’s supposed to be at. That would be the good news. Now the bad news. No one knows where he went. None of the people who were at the facility remember seeing anyone come in, or go out. The last time anyone saw him was last night.”

“Nice security,” Isaac says.

“It’s a senior care facility,” Chris says dryly. “No one was too worried about security.”

Stiles is calm enough now to look up, and he says, “Do you think he could be after Derek for information? Like how to heal himself? And do you think he would have gone after Peter for the same reason?”

“Peter’s missing as well?” Chris asks.

“Isaac and I haven’t seen him since that night at the hospital,” Stiles says. “We know he was with Derek after that, but after the eclipse it’s like he fell off the face of the planet. We’d just thought he’d gone with Derek and Cora, but Derek said it was only him and Cora on their road trip. Which means Peter’s been MIA for months. Isaac warned Cora, but we don’t think Gerard knows about her.”

“He doesn’t,” Chris says. “At least not through us. As soon as we found out about her, Allison made the call to not tell him about her. She thought maybe it would come in handy and I followed her lead.”

“Well, if anything, it’s protecting her,” Stiles says, and there’s relief in his voice. It’s hard to pick out under all the tension, but it’s there. Isaac agrees with it.

“Where would they be able to imprison werewolves, anyway?” Stilinski asks, and he moves closer.

“Anywhere they can fit a mountain ash circle,” Stiles says.

“No, they would have to have Derek restrained some way,” Isaac says. “Or he’d howl and Scott would know where he is immediately. Alphas are hard-wired to respond to their pack howling, no matter how far away they are. And even the rest of us would at least feel _something_. I think. I don’t know about you, Allison, and Lydia, but I would.”

“How does that even work?” Stiles mutters curiously.

“Derek explained it once,” Isaac says. “While Erica and Boyd were missing. He said if they had stayed pack, if he had been their Alpha during that and one of them had howled, he would have been able to track them down immediately. And I would have known there was trouble. He said it would be like hearing a distant echo in a cave. I would hear it, but I wouldn’t be able to track down its source. If I were in range of the howl, I would know immediately, but if I’m out of range, the instincts will kick in and I’ll go find my Alpha.”

“And Derek knows that,” Stiles says. “So chances are he can’t howl, or Gerard or whoever has him has threatened us so he _won’t_ howl.”

“Either are likely,” Chris agrees.

“One of these days I’m going to make all of you sit down and tell me _everything_ ,” Stilinski says. “If I put out APBs on Gerard and Peter, will it do any good?”

“It would help us figure out if they’re in the area anymore,” Chris says. “I have a contact getting me descriptions of the hunters Gerard has called. As soon as I have them I’ll pass them on.”

Isaac glances up at a sound and sees someone coming. He doesn’t recognize the man, so he whispers, “Incoming.”

Stiles and his dad both look up, and Stilinski lets out a sigh before going out of the office. Isaac throws a questioning look at Stiles.

“New deputy,” Stiles whispers. “Overeager. Drives my dad nuts.”

Isaac nods, and turns back to the phone. “So what do we do for now?”

“We keep looking,” Chris says.

“And pray someone comes up with something,” Stiles mutters. Isaac can’t help but agree.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, writing fics is fun.
> 
> So I've been having fun with this story, if you can't tell. This chapter has Danny and then some Derek feels. I'm tired and I should probably say more in this AN, but my brain doesn't want to do it, so I'm just gonna upload the chapter, because why not. Enjoy!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale) and you should all go check out her Sterek Military Pen Pal AU because it is wonderful.

Scott wants to be a vet when he’s older. He knows what he can do is a helpful aid in diagnosing diseases, and he knows it’s something he’s good at. And biology is the study of living things. So biology is an important class for an aspiring vet. He needs to get into college.

All of this keeps going through his head as he stares at the paper on his desk, unable to concentrate. His pack member is in danger. His pack member is scared, and probably hurt.

And Scott is taking a _fucking biology test_.

He’s not sure why this is so much more intense than when Stiles had gone missing. He thinks it’s because he can feel everything Derek is going through. There’s also the fact that their pack is much closer now, and the instincts have been getting stronger over the past couple months. Scott doesn’t think anyone else has picked up on it, but he’s been noticing the pack drifting closer, even Allison and Derek. There’s been less tension, less serious arguments, more joking, and even _Derek_ has let his guards down around them. He’s not sure when the change came, although he suspects if he could rewind, he’d find the tipping point somewhere around Stiles and Derek’s first date.

Maybe it’s because he’s much more in tune with the pack now. After months of doing everything blindly, following only instinct, he’d tentatively asked Derek to help him figure out how to listen to the Alpha instinct. It turned out he’d been doing almost everything right, he’d just been holding back. And now he can control it, and turn it on and off. It’s almost surreal in its intensity, and Scott likes it, because he likes knowing they’re all okay, and usually sees it as a benefit.

Except right now, because he’s barely got control of it, and he’s not sure if his eyes are brown or red. Allison’s several seats behind him, so he can’t turn to let her check without showing half the class. He’s got half of his mind keeping track of his other pack members, Lydia in her physics class, and Stiles and Isaac together at the station, and he has no room left for his biology test. He’s regretting coming to school now.

He wonders if faking an asthma attack would be a good way to get out of it, so he can do a retake. To be honest, he’s not worried about it, because his grade in biology has been good, and it can take one hit. And he’s got much bigger things on his mind. Like the fact he’s pretty sure Derek is being tortured, and he knows Stiles can feel it, and he can feel Stiles’s panic. Isaac seems to have control of the situation at the moment, but he’s not sure how long that will last.

He starts filling in random bubbles to give his hands something to do, and manages to get answers on every question, though he doesn’t know what he actually answered and doesn’t particularly care. He passes up his test when their teacher asks for them, and keeps his head down as the bell rings and people start to file out. Allison comes up next to him and bends down and whispers, “Look at me.”

He does, and she nods. “You’re good. All brown.”

He lets out a sigh of relief before getting up. Lydia’s waiting right outside their classroom, looking far more irritated than Scott’s ever seen her at school.

“Did Stiles and Isaac check in?” she asks as they head down the hall.

“They’re both fine,” Scott says. “They’re at the station still. Stiles says he’s gonna send us all a summary of what they’ve learned so far.”

“They’ve learned things?” Allison asks, surprised. Scott shrugs.

“Apparently,” Scott wouldn’t honestly be surprised if they’ve found helpful things. He knows Stiles and he knows the sheriff. They’re both good at what they do, especially when it comes to protecting people they love. Not to mention Stiles has no reservations about playing dirty. The sheriff is a man of the law, he’ll try to stay where he can justify. Stiles will not. Stiles will hack, and blackmail, and steal, and Scott’s fairly sure he would murder if he had to. He doesn’t follow the rules. That’s why he has Scott, so Scott can keep him on the right side of the line.

Now he’s got the entire pack, but Scott doesn’t think they helped. He thinks they made it worse.

But then, if their problems got bigger, their solutions have to follow suit, right? Stiles had pointed that out to him during the kanima situation, when he’d tried to argue for killing Jackson. It was a different, more harsh world. Not everything was black and white, there had to be _some_ gray, or they ran the risk of becoming like Kate.

Sometimes, Scott hates when Stiles makes sense.

They’d been distracted from that argument not long after that, and hadn’t ever finished it, but Scott’s been thinking about more and more, and as much as he doesn’t want it to be true, he’s pretty sure it is. It sucks. It sucks so much.

They head to lunch, and sit at a table with Danny. Scott’s been thinking about inviting him to the pack, but he won’t make Danny cut contact from the twins, and he can’t let Danny in if he’s still with Ethan. There’s too much history there for both Derek and Isaac. Scott doesn’t particularly like them, either, which is why he’s glad they left town instead of joining his pack as betas. He’s _extremely_ glad it happened before Derek came back.

Danny hadn’t been there. He hadn’t witnessed the death of Boyd, hadn’t felt that loss as hard as the rest of them. So Scott can’t blame him for not breaking it off with Ethan. He hadn’t even asked Lydia. She’d left Aiden on her own, because she didn’t want to associate with the bad guys, and the twins, though they’d tried to help them at the end, had done too much bad to suddenly become good.

“What’s up?” Danny asks as they sit down. “You all look like hell.”

“Derek’s missing,” Allison says. “We were out all night looking for him.”

“Ah, that’s why Stiles isn’t here,” Danny nods knowingly. “Anything I can do to help?”

“We’re about to get a rundown from Stiles,” Scott says. Sometimes he forgets how good of a guy Danny really is. He wants to invite him to the pack so badly. “So we’ll see.”

As if on cue, Scott’s phone vibrates, indicating an email, as does Allison’s and Lydia’s. Scott grabs his and pulls it up. Lydia leans over and lets Danny read off of hers.

Reading through it, Scott takes a second to admire Stiles’s ability to hunt down information and his business-like wording, missing his usual sarcasm and rambling and just sticking the facts. It explains everything he, Isaac, Sheriff Stilinski, and Chris had found so far, ending with their theories and telling Scott about the howling. The whole thing is wrapped up with Stiles asking the last time they’d seen Peter.

Scott thinks hard about it. He’s pretty sure the last time he saw Peter was the chaotic night at the hospital. He’d left with Deucalion and so hadn’t been at the little reunion. From what he’d heard, Peter had cut and run before they’d met up with Argents, and Stiles had stayed at the hospital to throw the cops off. Lydia hadn’t been there that night.

“The last time we saw Peter?” Allison asks. “The warehouse. When he helped with Jackson.”

Scott blinks. “That’s right, you didn’t see him the night at the hospital.”

“The last time I saw Peter was at Derek’s loft before Jennifer came and killed Kali and nearly killed the twins,” Lydia says.

“Who is Peter?” Danny asks curiously.

“Alpha who bit Scott and attacked Lydia at the winter formal last year,” Allison explains.

“Oh,” Danny says. “So not a good guy?”

“We don’t trust him,” Scott says. “But he’s Derek’s uncle, so we’re all kind of stuck with him. No one likes him.”

Danny looks like he’s seriously worried for their sanity, but Scott just shrugs it off. Danny’s still relatively normal. He’s allowed to be confused.

Finally, Danny nods and moves on. His ability to not be shaken by any of this is probably Scott’s favorite thing about him. It’s somewhat ironic that the humans were the calmest about the reveal of the supernatural, although Scott thinks that might have to do with the separation they might feel.

Then again, Stiles has always been suicidally eager, and Danny’s easygoing, so maybe it’s just the way they deal with things.

Maybe Scott needs to stop thinking about this and focus on the problem at hand.

“And Gerard?” Danny says.

“My grandfather,” Allison says, her opinion quite clear in her angry tone.

“Remember our principle last year, the old guy?” Scott asks. Danny nods, then his expression clears.

“He was a hunter?” he says. “How many other hunters are hiding in society?”

Scott can’t help but growl quietly. “Good question. When you find out, how about you pass that information on?”

Danny blinks at him, and Scott realizes how snappy that sounded. “Sorry,” he says. “On edge.”

“Is it like an Alpha thing?” Danny asks.

“More like a pack thing,” Scott says. “With just a bit added on because I’m Alpha.”

Danny’s quiet for a few moments before he lets out a slow breath and says, “Wow. Your lives are weird.”

Scott snorts. “Understatement.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s dark. Freezing. Silent.

 _He_ will be back soon. Derek doesn’t know how long. Time’s lost all meaning. There’s a sort of peace in just hanging from his restraints. He feels like he’s floating, like nothing can touch him. He suspects that’s not good, but he can’t bring himself to care.

Derek tries to lift his head as the door opens again. He doesn’t have the strength to, and even if he did, they punish him for looking them directly in the eyes. He won’t submit, and it angers them. So they push him harder.

But he won’t. He won’t break. Not when it means trouble to his pack. Not when it means he could lose everything he’s gained. Not when resisting protects Stiles. He can’t do much chained up like this, but he can do that.

Gerard Argent. Derek had known he should have killed him that night in the warehouse. Had known it would make sense. But the Argents wouldn’t have taken kindly to it, and Derek’s head had been reeling from everything that had happened, and a tiny part of him was glad the hunter would suffer a long and painful death.

But of course he didn’t die. Because that’s not how Derek’s life works. He doesn’t have good luck. He doesn’t get a break, and all of the pain that he’s feeling now is apparently penance for the past couple of months, all of the good Derek’s suddenly been given.

There’s got to be some sort of deity somewhere that has some sick and twisted sense of humor and gets off on fucking with Derek’s life. He’s got no other explanation.

The only thing that keeps him clinging to his sanity is the pack. He can _feel_ them. He can feel Scott’s anger, Lydia’s frustration, Allison’s determination, Isaac’s worry, Stiles’s panic. He grasps onto it, to the pack bond that has accidentally become his anchor as his anger has disappeared. These people can hurt them all he wants, they can take away his ability to howl, but they can’t take that. They can’t take the feeling of family from him, and that gives him hope. His pack isn’t abandoning him, and he’s not giving up.

Not if he can help it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, well, chapter four already. Yup.
> 
> I really wish I had more to say in these right now. Uh...Dylan O'brien has a nice face? I really like Derek this season? ISAAC MY BABY. I really don't know. Uh, there's some Sterek in this chapter, and some explanation as to where the twins are. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but I don't want to like the twins in the show, I love Max and Charlie but Ethan and Aiden killed Boyd and I loved Boyd and I'm upset about that. So.
> 
> Oh! And I have this headcanon that Scott actually has a really bad temper and did before the bite, too, and canon pretty much supports this if they haven't just outright said it yet. So the Alpha in Scott, at least in this 'verse, is making it harder to control his temper. Because I really like angry!Scott. I don't know why. I think it's because Posey is adorable and every time Scott's angry on screen I just want to give him a hug.
> 
> Beta'd again by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale) and seriously go read her story called Fate Knew Better if you like Sterek. It's good.

John runs a hand through his hair, yawning his way through the case files again. It’s been three days since someone last saw Derek, and though John hasn’t lost hope because he knows through the pack that Derek’s still alive, he’s at a loss what to do. He’s at home, trying to look through the case with Stiles, trying to find _something_ for the pack to latch onto, but his son is fast asleep at the table, crashing after three days of panic-fueled detective work.

Together with Danny’s help (and John can’t believe he’s encouraging illegal hacking; the supernatural has permanently turned his world upside down) he and Stiles had created a timeline of what was now their only lead, starting back when the pack remembers last seeing Peter (with help from Cora) to when Derek had vanished.

They’d thought they had a breakthrough when they’d realized Peter had gone back and killed Jennifer Blake. Her dead body had been found at the Nemeton weeks after everything had happened, with slash marks across her neck, and John had dug up the crime scene pictures and had Stiles verify that it was a werewolf attack. That gave them a better timeline, but not by much.

Cora had helped by saying she’d talked to Peter a couple weeks after they’d left town, but they’d already been starting to lose touch when him when he’d stopped calling, so it wasn’t suspicious that they hadn’t talked to him months. Danny helped them track down Peter’s downtown apartment, where the landlord was shifty-eyed and had no answers for them. Scott and Isaac had gone, hoping to catch a scent and find a trail, but that didn’t pan out. They’d found Peter’s car in a storage unit, paid for by one of Peter’s credit cards. Scott and Isaac had picked up the faded smell of wolfsbane. It had lost its potency, and Scott estimated it was at least three months old, possibly more.

Which didn’t do them any good. Stiles was absolutely certain that the hunters had gone too far with Peter and killed him, thus prompting their decision to abduct Derek, and while John didn’t completely disagree, there was something that was bothering him. Stiles had told him that Peter was like a shadow in the corner, quietly watching until the opportune moment. That didn’t sound like Peter would have held out if he’d known how to help Gerard, unless he really hated Gerard that much.

Stiles had been convinced he did. John hadn’t been so sure. He had a theory that Peter had told Gerard how to do it, but Peter didn’t have a way to do it. They’d taken Derek in hopes that he would, but Derek couldn’t either.

He’d ran that theory past the pack, and there had been this resigned and annoyed air about them when he’d finished. When John had asked why, Stiles had said, “If you’re right, Derek probably hasn’t told them he can’t do it. He’ll do what he can to protect the pack, and if he thinks holding out on them will, he won’t tell them.”

That hadn’t made John feel better. But, as he’d pointed out, it meant they still had time. Because as soon as Derek told them he couldn’t do it, he was either going to be dead or used as bait. Either way wasn’t a good option.

A few hours after that meeting, Scott had been pulled aside by his mom, and then pulled rank, sending everyone home to get some rest. They were no good to Derek if they couldn’t stay on their feet. There had been protesting, but Scott had shut them all down, saying they couldn’t afford to not take care of themselves, especially if they did form a plan. They’d need all their strength.

Of course, when John had managed to get Stiles home, he’d immediately set up camp at the table and John had just gone with it. He knew the pack had a hard time sleeping when they could feel everything Derek was feeling, so he just let Stiles work until he’d fallen asleep.

That’s where he is when John suddenly hears a noise outside. He glances at Stiles, deeply asleep, and makes the decision to go check it out on his own. He _is_ a police officer, after all.

He grabs Stiles’s trusty baseball bat and heads to the door, glancing through the peephole, in case the noise was just someone coming to knock.

A second later, he’s throwing the door open in shock, and staring at Derek Hale, standing on his porch. He’s in nothing but boxers, and he’s shaking so hard John’s not sure how he’s standing. There’s no blood on him, but there are bruises upon bruises, and the worst is his neck, which looks like someone tried to strangle him.

“Derek?” he says. Derek doesn’t acknowledge him at all. Instead, he falls forward, and John moves to catch him, yelling for Stiles over his shoulder.

It takes Stiles less than a second to bolt out of the kitchen, and he stops short at the doorway, staring wide-eyed at them. He’s frozen only for a second before he runs forward and helps John support Derek to the couch. They set him down on the couch, where he slumps, staring at the wall.

“What --?” is all Stiles can say, and Derek starts out of his trance-like state, something like recognition in his eyes. He reaches up and grabs Stiles’s arm. Stiles reacts instinctively, moving closer to Derek. The werewolf seems to relax as Stiles comes closer, and John understands after a second.

“He escaped,” he says. Stiles looks up at him, and then back at Derek. “That’s why you were so deeply asleep. You weren’t feeling his panic anymore. And he came where he knew he’d be safe.”

Stiles blinks, then nods. He sits down next to Derek on the couch and says, “Can you get him some clothes? I would, but --.”

“Don’t worry about it,” John says. He heads to Stiles’s room, and goes to the drawer of pajamas, purposely pulling out Stiles’s biggest clothes, and brings them back down stairs. He grabs Stiles’s comforter at the last second, and hands them all to Stiles.

“I’ll call Scott,” he says. Stiles nods at him, and starts pulling Derek’s arm. John leaves the room, letting Stiles dress Derek, and dialing Scott’s number. With a start, he realizes it’s almost two in the morning. He’s suddenly really glad Scott had forced everyone to go home, because if he hadn’t, no one would have been at the Stilinski residence when Derek arrived.

“‘Lo?” Scott answers groggily.

“Scott,” John says. “We found Derek. Or, well, he found us.”

“What?” Scott’s suddenly wide-awake. “When? How? Is he okay?”

“He just showed up on our porch about five minutes ago,” John says. “I don’t know how, but he’s pretty beat up and out of it. He didn’t recognize me, but he did recognize Stiles, so he’s at least still in there.”

There’s a moment of silence where John’s sure Scott’s fighting for composure. Finally he says, “Is it okay if we’re all over there in a couple of minutes?”

John takes a second to be pleased that Scott actually asked permission before saying, “Of course it is. I don’t think Derek will be up to talking, though.”

“That’s okay,” Scott says, sounding just a tiny bit hysterical. “He’s not that talkative anyway. Isaac! Mom! Derek’s at the Stilinski’s.”

“What?” he hears Isaac question before Scott hangs up. John snorts and decides to call the station in the morning, or whenever Derek’s feeling up to it.

When he goes back out to the living room, he sees that Stiles is now sitting on the couch. There’s a Derek-shaped lump on his lap, completely covered by Stiles’s comforter. John looks at Stiles, who shrugs helplessly.

“Didn’t really have a choice,” he says quietly. “At least I got the clothes on him.”

John nods. “The pack will be over as soon as possible. Think Derek will be up to it?”

“He seems to recognize pack,” Stiles says. “Or maybe just me. So as long as no one tries to force him to do anything and no one startles him, I think we’ll be okay. He’s calm right now.”

John nods and goes to start the coffee. He has a feeling they’re all going to need some.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A phone ringing in the middle of the night doesn’t usually mean anything good. Especially not when it’s the sheriff. Scott tries to remember how to be optimistic as he answers the phone.

“‘Lo?”

“Scott,” John’s tone is business-like, which doesn’t bode well for Scott’s hopes until he continues. “We found Derek. Or, well, he found us.”

Scott’s brain catches up with that before his emotions do and he sits up straight, now awake. “What? When? How? Is he okay?”

He forces himself to stop there so he doesn’t miss anything John has to say. He doesn’t ask about the hunters. He doesn’t care about them right now, as long as Derek’s okay. He’ll figure that out later.

“He just showed up on our porch about five minutes ago. I don’t know how, but he’s pretty beat up and out of it. He didn’t recognize me, but he did recognize Stiles, so he’s at least still in there.”

Scott takes a breath, holding his hands over his eyes as they flash red. He’s overwhelmed with relief and anger, and he’s not sure which one would come out if he lets himself talk. He needs to see Derek and assess the situation before he allows himself to react. And if there’s something seriously wrong with him, he’ll give into the instincts, and he will _fucking kill those hunters_.

He reigns in the Alpha side of him that’s threatening to break loose and pulls out the teenager side of him, because it at least has some control right now. There are people he can pull rank and people he can’t pull rank on, and the sheriff is one of the latter. He takes another breath and says, “Is it okay if we’re all over in a couple of minutes?”

“Of course it is,” John sounds slightly surprised he’s asking permission. “I don’t think Derek will be up to talking, though.”

Which means something has really messed with Derek’s head, because he’d been fine at Lydia’s dinner. He just hopes Derek doesn’t shut down fully, that someone can get through to him.

“That’s okay,” Scott says to cover up all the emotions running through him. His voice shakes slightly and he hopes John doesn’t hear it. “He’s not that talkative anyway.”

He gets himself off of the bed and out in the hallway and yells, “Isaac! Mom! Derek’s at the Stilinski’s.”

“What?” Isaac’s suddenly in the doorway to the guest room.

He hangs up the phone without saying good-bye and says, “Stiles’s dad just called, Derek just showed up at their house. He’s out of it and didn’t recognize the sheriff, but he did recognize Stiles.”

His mom appears in her door, looking far more awake than Scott feels. “Want me to come?”

“Can you?” Scott asks, feeling strange. “In case he’s really hurt? He won’t react well to the hospital.”

His mom nods, and Scott gives her a hug before going back to his room to get dressed and dialing Allison’s number, because he knows Lydia’s over there, and Chris has a right to know too.

“Hello?” Allison says through a yawn. “Scott?”

“Derek just showed up at Stiles’s house,” Scott says.

“He did?” Allison says, and Lydia lets out a yelp of indignation.

“What did you do that for?” Lydia demands.

“Derek’s at Stiles’s house,” Allison says.

“He is?” Lydia says. “Who is that? Stiles?”

“Scott,” Allison says, and there’s a beep. “You’re on speaker.”

“He just showed up something like five or ten minutes ago,” Scott says. “The sheriff called me. Apparently Derek didn’t recognize him, but he did recognize Stiles. We’re all heading over there, you guys should come, too. But he might not be up to talking.”

“He doesn’t have to be,” Allison says. “We’ll be there. Let me go tell my dad.”

“Is it okay if I call Danny?” Lydia asks. For a second, Scott wonders why she’s asking him, before he remembers he’s Alpha, and this is pack business.

Only, Danny had acted like pack for the past couple of days, and he’d been as invested in this search as the rest of them. If it weren’t for the Ethan factor, Scott would call him pack.

“Do you know if he’s been around Ethan recently?” Derek’s already vulnerable, Scott doesn’t want to set him off.

“What?” Lydia asks. “Is _that_ the holdup with this?”

“Uh, yeah,” Scott says. “Mention the twins around Isaac or Derek. Or Stiles for that matter. Actually, don’t. Especially not now.”

“Scott,” Lydia says. “Ethan and Aiden left the country. They went south, apparently to avoid anyone who they’d screwed over now that they don’t have a pack. Changed their names and everything. Danny hasn’t seen Ethan since before Derek came back.”

_Well_. Now Scott feels stupid. “Oh. Then yeah, bring Danny. We’ll invite him to the pack.”

He hears Lydia make some sort of happy noise, and then Chris in the background asks what’s going on, and Scott says good-bye before pulling on his shoes and heading out to the hallway.

Isaac’s waiting there for him, and they go down to where his mom is standing and waiting.

“Ready?” she says, and Scott nods eagerly.

“Definitely.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, so the beginning of this chapter is the first thing I imagined for this fic. And then it snowballed into a monster. But yeah. There's some pack feels, some Scott's an Alpha feels, some Sterek feels, some Derek's life really sucks feels, some Stiles feels. And yeah.
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

The ride to the Stilinski’s is quiet. Scott’s in the backseat, letting Isaac have the front. He’d noticed Isaac’s panic in cars a long time ago, and knew Isaac didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so he didn’t say anything and just climbed in the back whenever he could.

As they pull up in the Stilinski driveway, Scott catches Derek’s scent. There’s no blood in the scent, which is actually a surprise to Scott. He opens the door to the car and spots the Argent’s car, followed by Danny’s turning the corner and parking on the street. He walks to the front door with Isaac and pulls out his key, opening it as Lydia and Allison reach them. Danny’s only a few steps behind them, wide-eyed.

“Don’t scare him,” Scott says in an undertone as the door opens. He takes a deep breath and hears Stiles and his dad talking in the living room. He heads there, leading the pack as his mom and Chris reach the door.

“Hey!” Stiles calls quietly over to them, and Scott looks around, not immediately spotting Derek until he sees the blanket covered person curled up on Stiles’s lap. He immediately picks out that heartbeat, and it’s steady and strong. He lets out a sigh of relief.

“He’s calm,” Stiles says to them. “But he’s not all here right now. We think he went somewhere he felt safe, and was just acting on instinct.”

Scott nods. It makes sense. “Is he hurt?”

“Really bruised,” Stiles says. “Especially around his neck. He won’t let me near it and didn’t like when the shirt had to go over his head. He’s got some control, though, because he didn’t try to bite me, just growled at me. I don’t know if he’s healing much.”

“Is he awake?” Lydia asks.

“Yeah,” Stiles says. “He keeps squeezing my arm. I don’t know why.”

Scott blinks at the blatant lie and narrows his eyes at Stiles.

“Okay, fine,” Stiles sighs. “I’m pretty sure he keeps squeezing my arm to reassure himself that this is real. Jesus. Don’t pull rank like that. Freaks me out.”

“Sorry,” Scott says, because he hadn’t meant to pull rank, especially not on Stiles. “Does he know we’re here?”

“I have no idea,” Stiles shrugs.

“He might,” John says from behind them. “But then, I don’t think he realized I was there when I opened the door. He didn’t look at me, or acknowledge me at all.”

“I still think it’s because you’re not pack,” Stiles says, and John nods.

“I agree,” he says. “But they are. Maybe he needs to see them?”

“Maybe,” Stiles says, and he reaches out and slowly lifts the blanket. Scott crouches to look under it, and sees bright blue wolf eyes staring back at him. Isaac, who had crouched next to him, immediately takes a step back, but Scott feels the Alpha in him hold him in spot, refusing to submit to one of his betas, and he flashes his eyes red at Derek.

The eyes blink, and the blue fades. Scott sees recognition on Derek’s face, and he lifts his head to look in Scott’s direction.

“Hi, Derek,” Scott says.

Derek looks at him for a long moment, then nods. Then he reaches up and pulls the blanket back down. Stiles doesn’t fight him.

“He knows his Alpha,” Isaac says. “So if nothing else, he remembers Stiles and Scott.”

Stiles shakes his head. “He’s a wolf. If he didn’t recognize you, he would still know you’re a wolf. He knows you’re not a threat, or he’d be more agitated. He might not make the mental connection, but he definitely knows you’re pack.”

Scott tilts his head before nodding. “He’s right. His eyes were blue, but he didn’t growl. He didn’t even show his teeth. He knows who we are.”

“Great,” Allison says, and Scott hears the relief in that word. He looks up at her, sees anger also in her eyes. “Can we go take care of the hunters, then?”

“Better to do it now rather than later,” Chris says quietly. He doesn’t seem to be at ease, and Scott thinks he’s worried about setting Derek off, in case his presence isn’t wanted. Scott thinks it would be okay, but he’s not one hundred percent sure, so he doesn’t push it.

“We don’t know what they did,” John points out, but he doesn’t really sound like he’s arguing.

“We don’t have to know,” Scott surprises even himself with his angry tone. “They _attacked my pack_.”

“In the world of the supernatural, that gives Scott the right to pass judgment,” Stiles says, and he sounds almost gleeful. Scott shoots him a warning look. Stiles meets his gaze, then looks to the side, submitting for once instead of arguing.

“Stiles is right,” Chris says. “And since I’ve got an alliance with you and a personal interest in this case, I’m coming with.”

Scott nods and looks around the room. “Lydia, Danny, you two stay here with Stiles and Derek. Watch TV or something, _don’t_ try to make Derek talk. See if you can get him to drink and eat something. Allison, Isaac, and I will go with Mr. Argent to take care of it,” he looks at his mom and John. “I can’t tell you what to do.”

His mom shakes her head. “I’ll stay here and look Derek over if he’ll let me. But you’d better be careful. _All_ of you.”

“We will be,” Scott promises, and he hugs his mom.

John seems to be hesitant, like he doesn’t exactly know what to do. Scott doesn’t have any ideas, so he looks at Stiles, passing this off to him. Stiles blinks, confused for a second, before he catches on and says, “Dad, you should go to Derek’s and get him some of his stuff.”

John gives him an annoyed look, probably knowing exactly what was going on. Stiles gives him a pleading look, and they seem to communicate silently for a few seconds before John finally lets out a breath.

“Fine,” he says. “But I’m still going to have to investigate this, you know. Just because Derek’s here, doesn’t mean my job ends.”

“We’ll leave no evidence,” Chris says.

“That’s kind of the problem,” John mutters.

“What about this?” Stiles suddenly says. “Take a knife, and make one or more of the guys look like they were killed in an attempt to get out. Or make it look like an accident. Self defense. Something that won’t get Derek in trouble, but will make them look like the -- the -- I don’t have a word for what they are at the moment.”

“Mark it on a calendar,” Lydia says dryly. Stiles rolls his eyes.

“Make it a clean case,” John says, nodding. “So I can swing it in Derek’s favor _and_ hopefully keep my job.”

“You got it,” Allison says. Then she stops. “What do we do about the Peter problem?”

“Peter problem,” Stiles repeats. “Amazing alliteration, Allison.”

“Go to sleep,” Scott tells him. Stiles flips him off. His dad sighs.

“Anyway,” Chris says, clearly trying to keep them on track, although he’s got a small smile on his face. “That’s a valid question.”

“Depends,” Stiles says.

“On what?” Scott raises an eyebrow.

“On what condition you find him in,” Stiles says. “If he’s dead, there’s nothing we can do except bury him.”

That is a good point. “And if he’s alive, what should we do?”

He looks around at the pack members. He doesn’t include Danny, because Danny’s new and hasn’t even been officially accepted into the pack; his opinion isn’t going to mean much either way. He doesn’t acknowledge any of the adults except Chris, because his mom and the sheriff hadn’t been attacked by Peter like the pack had, and though he doesn’t want to piss either of them off, they weren't Peter's victims. He’s going to do right by his pack first (and then grovel in front of his mom).

He can see the problem on everyone else’s faces. Peter’s not a friend. Peter’s the reason Scott’s a werewolf. He attacked Lydia, kidnapped Stiles, killed Derek’s sister, killed Allison’s aunt. But at the same time, he’d been targeted by Gerard. His family had been killed by Kate. He’d been driven insane. Scott’s at a loss what to do.

“Save him,” Lydia says slowly. “Then kick him off your territory.”

“With no loopholes,” Stiles adds. The two of them are very clearly in favor of that plan. Scott looks at Isaac for his input and sees him nodding. Then he looks at Allison, who nods once, not happy but not arguing.

He looks at Chris, who has a sour look on his face. “You’re not pack; I can’t stop you.”

“I’ll go with your plan,” Chris says. “But if he attacks me, I make no promises.”

Scott nods. It’s better than he was hoping for. “Okay. We should hurry, before light. We can follow the trail Derek left and hopefully catch them by surprise.”

“Call as soon as you’re done,” Stiles says, pointing at him for emphasis.

“We will,” Scott says.

“We’ll have to stop by our apartment,” Chris says. “We’ll need more weapons.”

Scott nods, and gives his mom another hug before they leave. He looks around at the cars and says, “Let’s go in your car, in case my mom has to go somewhere.”

Chris nods and they get in the car. Isaac’s in back with Scott, and Scott mentally curses when he realizes this. But Isaac seems to be too distracted to notice where he is, and Scott doesn’t bring it to attention.

They stop at the Argent’s and wait for them to come back down. Then, they go back to the Stilinski house to backtrack the trail and both Scott and Isaac stick their heads out the windows.

They follow the trail to an office building for a local tax company. It’s relatively isolated, with a few seemingly empty buildings around them. Scott stares.

“Really?” Allison sounds dubious.

“Really,” Scott nods.

“He was in town the entire time,” Isaac shook his head.

“At least he didn’t walk too far to get to the Stilinski’s,” Chris points out.

“Optimism,” Scott agrees. They start towards the doors, both werewolves keeping an eye out for cameras. Neither of them see any.

“Can you hear anyone inside?” Chris asks Scott as they get closer. Scott holds up a hand and closes his eyes, focusing all of his attention on his ears. This was a trick he’d been teaching himself, using his pack members at school as practice. He’d started out way back when he’d first been bit, using his hearing to track Stiles down. Then Allison had been added, and Lydia and Jackson, too. Isaac had been added at the beginning of their junior year. Block out everything except what you’re looking for.

Scott’s looking for Gerard’s voice. And he finds it.

“...just wait for them to follow Hale’s trail,” his voice says. “Once Scott gets here, we can use him to do it.”

“How do you know he’ll go to McCall?” a deeper voice says.

“And how do we know he’ll come here?” another voice asks.

“Derek is in Scott’s pack now,” Gerard says, sounding almost amused. “We let him go to lure Scott here. The Alpha in him won’t be able to resist.”

Scott opens his eyes in a panic. “It’s a trap. Gerard’s in there, Derek didn’t escape, they let him go.”

Allison looks up at him and says, “We need to get you out of here, then.”

“No,” Scott says sharply. “They’ll just go after someone else. Someone more vulnerable.”

“Lydia?” Isaac whispers.

“Or Stiles,” Chris looks like he feels sick, and Scott freezes.

“What is that face for?” he demands, trying not to use his Alpha voice and not succeeding.

Chris looks at him, looking like he _really_ didn’t want to have this conversation. He sighs. “Figures Stiles wouldn’t tell you. I didn’t know, either, until Gerard mentioned it a few months ago.”

“Mentioned _what_?” Allison demands.

Chris gives the wall an annoyed look. “Remember when Jackson stabbed himself with his claws on the lacrosse field?”

“Yeah,” Allison says, looking confused. Scott catches on, and his heart skips a beat, but Isaac beats him to speaking it.

“Stiles disappeared for a couple hours,” he says. Allison’s expression cleared.

“You mean _Gerard_ \--,” she cuts herself off.

“ _That’s_ what happened to his face?” Scott can barely speak through his anger. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Probably because it was supposed to be a message to you,” Chris is still glaring at the wall. “And Stiles didn’t like that. Gerard picked the wrong person to deliver a message.”

“I’m gonna kill him,” Scott growls. “If Derek hadn’t needed Stiles there, I would let Stiles kill him.”

“ _Let_ ,” Isaac snorts. “Like you let Stiles do anything.”

Scott rolls his eyes, but Isaac accomplishes what Scott assumes he was trying to do. His anger disappears slowly, and he’s able to calm the Alpha instinct.

“We’re still killing him.”

It’s not an argument, and everyone present knows it. None of them seem to have a problem with it, though, and they make a quick and probably stupid plan before going in the door.

It goes wrong immediately. Scott can’t find it in him to be surprised.

There are two guards, and one of them has a taser that he immediately pulls the trigger on. Isaac and Scott both step in front of the Argents, and the taser hits Isaac, who goes down immediately, shaking and twitching.

Scott has had _enough_ of people hurting his pack and lunges forward, tackling the man, who hits his head hard on the table and stops moving, looking dazed. Chris is more goal-oriented than Scott, and crosses the room takes down the other man. The man Scott originally hit takes out a gun, but before he can do anything, Allison shoots, hitting his hand, and the man lets out a scream.

“Shit,” Chris says. “They’ll hear that.”

Scott would have responded, but then he hears something behind him and dives to the side as the cabinet he’d been leaning against _explodes_. Scott’s thrown into a table. The side of his head slams into something and he hits the ground, his ears ringing and the world spinning.

His blurry vision focuses on Allison above him as his ears stop ringing, and he hears Chris on his other side say, “I think he’s okay, Allison.”

“M’kay,” Scott mumbles. “M’healing.”

“You’re a dumbass,” he hears Isaac say, and lets out a breath of relief.

“Soun’ li' Stiles,” Scott mutters. “S‘appening?”

“He’s slurring really bad,” Allison says.

“He’s healing,” Chris says. “We’re being pinned down in the side of the room, Scott. You knocked a table over and we’ve taken cover behind it.”

“‘Saac okay?” Scott tries to make his tongue work.

“I’m okay,” Isaac says.

“‘Kay,” Scott says, feeling _really_ slow. But he’s staring at the ceiling, and part of the ceiling is moving, and he might be concussed, but he’s pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.

“S’that?” he points clumsily up, and Chris looks up, and immediately grabs Scott and pulls him to his feet.

“We have to move,” he says.

“ _Where_?” Allison says. Scott tries to focus on her, but there’s three of her, and he doesn’t know how hard he hit his head, but it _hurts_ and he wants it to heal. They’re in danger, and he’s Alpha, and everything’s falling to shit. Again.

“Scott?” Chris says his name and Scott blinks at him. “I need you to help me, okay, we need get across the room.”

“Okay,” Scott says, feeling his head start to clear. Ah, the effects of werewolf healing. He forces his feet to work the way they’re supposed to, and manages to support himself most of the way across the room.

“What was going on?” Scott asks as they find an office to stumble into and take refuge. The others all look at him with various amounts of relief as Isaac closes the door and puts his ear up to it.

“Wolfsbane,” Chris says. “They’d been about to drop a whole box on us.”

“That would have killed us,” Scott says. They all give him a look.

“Yeah, we know,” Isaac says. Scott makes a frustrated noise.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he says. “Gerard _wants_ something. Why would he just kill us all off at the beginning?”

“Gerard’s technically a wolf,” Chris suddenly says. “Scott, if he kills you, would he become Alpha?”

Scott feels his mouth tighten. “Why is it every time someone attacks our pack it’s to get at me?”

“You’re so special,” Allison says angrily. Scott forces himself not to react to it, because it’s not aimed at him. It’s aimed at everyone who keeps attacking them.

“Why would Gerard torture Peter and Derek to kill Scott?” Chris asks. Scott thinks about it and is rewarded with a pounding in his head.

“My head’s still scrambled,” he rubs his forehead, trying to stop the pounding.

“Because Scott’s a True Alpha?” Isaac suggests.

“What does that have to do anything?” Chris asks.

“When I was riding with Stiles and his dad the other day, Stiles mentioned that Scott’s a True Alpha, and that’s something Gerard doesn’t know much about,” Isaac says. “Stiles thinks the only reason Gerard hasn’t come after Scott earlier than this was because he doesn’t know what the retribution would be for killing a True Alpha.”

“So he doesn’t know if it would help,” Allison says. “For all he knows, killing a True Alpha could be a curse.”

Scott stares at them. “What?”

“Remember the kanima thing?” Allison asks. “Matt was using the kanima to kill people, so he started to become the kanima. Stiles said Derek thinks the universe was balancing itself out, remember?”

“That kind of thing isn’t unheard of,” Chris says. “It’s completely possible that Gerard thinks there might be a curse on killing a True Alpha.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Scott asks. “He’s still _trying to kill us_.”

“Why has he suddenly changed his mind?” Chris says. “ _That’s_ the thing. If he let Derek go, and he’s willing to kill you with wolfsbane, no matter the consequences, what’s his play here?”

“Revenge?” Scott says. “I’m kind of the reason he’s like this now.”

Before any of them can say anything, Scott hears his name, and Isaac freezes, looking at him. Gerard’s talking, and he’s directing it at Scott.

“Oh, Scott, Scott, Scott. You should have known better than to come here. I’m a dead man walking. I hear your little ‘Alpha spark’ could save me. So how about a deal? You heal me, and I won’t kill your friends.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Lord, okay, so there's a couple character deaths in this scene. I'm not at all sure how everyone is going to react, because I'm not even sure how I'm reacting, so we'll see. Thanks for all of your support, guys!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

Isaac is very thankful this office isn’t tiny, because he’s already panicking, and he doesn’t need his claustrophobia showing up and making everything worse. Right now he’s panicking because Gerard is threatening all of them unless Scott gives himself up, and Scott is a self-sacrificing _idiot_ who looks to be considering it.

Isaac puts his foot down. “No.”

“No what?” Allison asks.

“Isaac,” Scott says, his eyes tinged with red.

“ _No_ ,” Isaac says more firmly. “Don’t pull rank. He’ll kill you. You can’t order me to let you sacrifice yourself.”

“What?” Allison asks sharply. “Scott, don’t you dare.”

Scott glares at them both. Isaac glares back, trying to keep his ground. He’s not like Stiles, doesn’t have the same kind of standing that allows him to challenge Scott easily, but he is _not_ backing down. Not about this.

Allison moves to stand next to him, her arms crossed, and helps him stare Scott down. Chris stares at them.

“Can this be taken care of later?” he asks.

“Scott’s trying to sacrifice himself for us,” Isaac says. “So no, not really.”

“Ah,” Chris nods. “How close is Gerard?”

“Just down the hall,” Scott says, lowering his voice. “I still think --.”

“Shut up,” Isaac and Allison say in unison. Scott glares at them both, but doesn’t say anything.

“What’s our plan, then?” Chris asks. “Sooner or later they’re going to find us.”

Isaac bites his lip and looks around the room. He can hear three more men following Gerard, who is in a wheelchair, by the sound of it. They’re opening each door, and from the look on Scott’s face, he doesn’t know what to do about it, either.

“There are men coming,” Isaac whispers. “Gerard and three more men. They’re heading this way.”

Chris looks grim. “They’ll have wolfsbane bullets.”

“Damn _it_ ,” Scott whispers. Isaac knows the feeling.

“What the hell do we do?” he whispers.

“I have an idea,” Scott whispers.

“If you say give yourself up, I will knock you out and drag your ass out of here,” Allison threatens.

“What if I fake it?” Scott asks. “If he wants me to heal him, then he’s got to be talking about the thing that Derek did for Cora. Remember? But there’s a certain point you have to stop at before that, and Gerard can’t make me take that pain. It’s voluntary on this side only.”

“But then you’d be close enough for him to kill,” Isaac whispers. “And we won’t be able to get to you.”

“He won’t kill me,” Scott insists. “Because him becoming Alpha wouldn’t help him.”

“What if he doesn’t know that?” Allison points out. Scott lets out an annoyed breath.

“Well, what do _you_ suggest we do?” he asks.

Before Allison or Isaac can answer, there’s a howl from outside in the hallway. Isaac recognizes it, but it’s not pack, and he gives Scott a confused look. Scott’s eyes are wide and confused.

“Peter,” he mouths. Isaac blinks in surprise.

“He’s _alive_?” Isaac whispers, too quietly for the Argents to hear. Scott nods and takes a step towards the door.

“How did he get out?” Gerard sounds angry as Isaac follows Scott. They don’t dare open the door, in case they draw attention to themselves.

There’s a growl that sends a shiver down Isaac’s spine and he edges backwards, towards Allison. He pulls Scott with him, and he doesn’t resist.

“What’s going on?” Chris whispers urgently.

“Peter,” Scott whispers. “And he doesn’t sound sane.”

“Shoot him!” Gerard yells, and there’s a howl and a thump, followed by several gunshots. Isaac can’t stop Scott when he starts toward the door and throws it open, and follows him, feeling the Argents behind him.

It’s a horrible sight. Peter looks like he’s given into the wolf. There’s nothing human in the blue eyes that are watching one of the men he’s cut the throat of dying. He’s bleeding from four different bullet wounds, and Isaac can smell the wolfsbane from where he stands. If Peter feels any of the pain, he doesn’t let it stop him as he rips the throat of the third and final man out and lets the body fall to the ground. Isaac feels his stomach lurch, and grabs Scott’s sleeve again, pulling him back as Peter turns toward Gerard.

The problem with Peter targeting Gerard is that the office Isaac and the others are standing in the doorway of is between them, and so they’ve caught the attention of both of them. Scott flashes his red eyes at Peter, but it doesn’t make a difference. Peter just snarls at him, then turns back to Gerard. He’s apparently not interested in the pack and Chris.

But Gerard _is_ , and Scott’s still looking at Peter when Isaac sees the gun come out of _nowhere_ , and Peter’s running, and Isaac panics and jumps in front of Scott.

What feels like _fire_ rips through his shoulder, and he hears Scott yell his name, and there’s a strange gurgling sound and more gunshots. The world is spinning around Isaac, and he can’t hear anything, and his vision is starting to go black, and he’s pretty sure he’s dying, but at least he died protecting his Alpha.

He’s brought back to awareness by a sharp stabbing pain in his shoulder, and he gasps.

“Isaac!” he hears Scott’s voice say. “You -- you shouldn’t have done that.”

“It was his instinct,” Chris’s voice says. “Remember what Derek said his pack position was?”

“Your bodyguard,” Allison says.

“But he -- he was _dead_ \-- you felt that, right?” Scott sounds shaken.

“I felt it,” Allison doesn’t sound much better. “But he’s alive now.”

Hands push down on Isaac’s shoulder, and he whimpers involuntarily.

“We did get the bullet out, right?” Allison says.

“Yeah,” Scott says. “But wolfsbane bullets -- they’re awful. Just trust me.”

Slowly, the pain in his shoulder fades, and Isaac’s able to focus on the world again. Scott’s above him, and his eyes are bright red, like he can’t help it. Allison’s on the other side of Isaac, and she’s leaning over him, too, with a really worried look on her face. Chris isn’t in Isaac’s eyeline, but it’s quiet, so he’s not particularly worried.

“Dude,” Scott says. “Don’t do that.”

“Had to,” Isaac feels exhausted. “My job.”

“ _No_ ,” Scott growls.

“Stop pulling rank,” Allison thumps Scott on the shoulder. “He’s your bodyguard. You don’t pull rank on Stiles when he’s being all...Stiles.”

“You don’t stop Stiles from being Stiles,” Scott deadpans. “You get out of the way.”

“You don’t pull rank on Lydia when she goes into a trance,” Allison points out, clearly not impressed with Scott's attempt at humor.

“Yeah, well,” Scott stops, and he raises his hands, which are covered in blood. _Isaac’s_ blood. “Fine. But just because it’s his instinct, doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

“I have a solution,” Isaac says. “Don’t get shot at.”

Scott lets out a laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“What happened?” Isaac asks.

“A lot,” Allison says. “Gerard shot at Scott, you got in the way, Peter got set off by the smell of more blood or something, Gerard shot Peter, and Peter ripped his throat out.”

Isaac winces. “Ugh.”

“I concur,” Allison says.

“So, Peter?” Isaac asks. Scott glances to the side, and Isaac forces his head to move to look in that general direction. He sees Peter Hale, lying on his back, gasping for breath. There are six bleeding bullet wounds in him, and his eyes are flashing from wolf to human uncontrollably. Isaac resists the urge to throw up and looks at Scott, his eyes wide.

“We can’t do anything,” Scott says quietly, understanding. “There’s too much wolfsbane in his system, and he won’t let any of us near. We tried.”

Isaac feels a sick sort of fascination as Peter starts choking on the blood coming out of his mouth, and can’t look away. He wants to do something, to help somehow, but he’s frozen in place as he watches Peter’s head fall to the side. The life fades from his eyes, and Isaac feels his wolf come out for just a second as his human side catches up with what’s going on.

Peter Hale is dead.

It’s quiet for a few seconds. Then Scott says, “He saved us.”

“We were dead,” Isaac agrees. There’s a heavy sort of feeling to the words, like the meaning is almost too much weight for the simple phrase.

“For all that he did wrong, he died a hero,” Scott says, his eyes flashing red to punctuate the sentence. Then he stands. “Come on. We need to clear out of here. Sheriff Stilinski can pass this off as fight of some sort.”

Before any of them can move, there’s a scream from far off, and Isaac feels his eyes flash yellow again. He looks at Scott to figure out what to do.

“What?” Allison asks.

“Lydia,” Scott says. “We should have known. We should be outside when she gets here, I don’t want her seeing Peter’s body.”

Isaac hears footsteps and glances down the hall as Allison helps him up. Chris is heading toward them. Isaac hadn’t even realized he was gone. He lets out an annoyed huff and leans against the wall, attempting to make his senses work the way they’re supposed to.

“Did you find it?” Scott asks as Chris gets closer.

“Yes,” Chris says, and he does _not_ look happy. “And none of you are going back there.”

“Where?” Isaac asks, curiosity beating out the uneasy feeling. “What’s back there?”

Chris lets out a breath. “I went to check out the rest of the building in case there was anyone else. And to see if Derek was held here. He was. And none of you are going anywhere near it.”

Isaac thinks he’s okay with that. He’s got enough material for his nightmares, thank you. Scott doesn’t particularly look happy, but he’s clearly exhausted. There’s blood on the side of his head from where he hit the table, and though he seems calm, Isaac can feel the emotional turmoil going on inside him through the pack bond. He leans his head against the wall, suddenly drained.

“Should we…?” Chris gestures towards Peter’s body. Scott looks down at Peter.

“No,” he says. “It’ll help out Derek’s story, and then his body will go to Derek. He can be buried, with his family.”

Chris nods. Scott comes over to Isaac and pulls his uninjured arm over his shoulder, supporting him. Isaac appreciates it and lets Scott take some of his weight as they start to leave.

He feels his stomach clench as they pass Gerard’s body, slumped over in his wheelchair. Scott doesn’t even look at the body, and Allison only barely glances at it, but Isaac can’t take his eyes off of it, and stares until he’s pulled past it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so quick thing before you go into this: I wrote this part before the past episode, and I didn't really understand Lydia's powers. So in my head, the scream was what signaled her there was a death and jump-started the trance. I realize that that is not what happens in the show and kind of a really weird way to think about. However, even if I think that the way the show is doing it is interesting, I'm going to stick with what I've written so far, in order to keep my stuff as consistent as possible.
> 
> That being said, here's the next chapter of this fic. Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale/pseuds/whatthehale).

It’s been five minutes since Scott, Isaac, Allison, and Chris left, and Stiles is already fed up with waiting. _Waiting_ feels too much like _inaction_ and Stiles doesn’t like inaction. He doesn’t like feeling helpless and he doesn’t like not having a plan. The pack instincts are not helping. Their pack member is hurt, and Stiles is angry at the hunters who hurt him. He wants to go make them pay.

But Stiles isn’t a wolf, he’s human, and any instincts coming from the pack bond are things he can usually ignore. Especially because his boyfriend is currently curled up on his lap with a blanket between him and the world, refusing to speak. Or possibly unable to speak. The bruises hadn’t been pretty. Stiles isn’t an expert on injuries in the neck area, but he’s pretty sure it would hurt to talk.

“Stiles,” Melissa says, and he looks up. “You think he’d let me look at him?”

Stiles honestly doesn’t have a clue. He shrugs. “I think we can try. No promises.”

Melissa nods, and Stiles takes a moment to admire the woman’s nerve, because she doesn’t even look slightly shaken. He’s always known she was a badass.

He leans forward and lifts the blanket again, slowly. Derek blinks out at him, human eyes instead of wolf this time. That’s a good sign.

“Hey,” he says. “You still in there?”

Derek looks at him for a few moments before nodding slightly. Stiles feels safe enough to pull the blanket back a little.

“Is it okay if Melissa takes a look at your bruises?” Stiles says. “Scott’s mom? Remember, she’s cool. She made your birthday cake.”

Derek’s face twitches. Stiles isn’t sure what he was trying to go for, but then there’s a nod and he lets Stiles push the blanket off him entirely. He helps Derek sit up next to him on the couch. Derek doesn’t let him leave, though, grabbing his hand and holding it tightly. Stiles stays seated and waves Melissa over.

She comes over slowly, and though Derek watches her every move, he doesn’t stop her, or even growl. His eyes stay completely human, and Stiles lets himself relax a bit as Melissa carefully looks over Derek’s injuries.

“Is this how bad they were last you saw?” Melissa asks Stiles. He looks at the bruises, some of them covered by the clothing, and frowns.

“They look a bit better,” Stiles says. “Not much.”

“So why isn’t he healing?” Melissa asks. She’s frowning, too, and looks like she’s thinking hard.

Stiles bites his lip. “Well, sometimes when werewolves get hurt and then have some sort of psychological problem, they don’t let themselves heal. When that happens, we usually trick them by treating them like we would if it were a human. They heal then.”

Melissa’s expression clears. “Okay.”

“There’s also the possibility that he doesn’t have the energy to heal,” Lydia speaks up from the chair she’s sitting in. “He’s been missing for three days. It’s likely he hasn’t had much to eat or drink.”

“With his throat bruised like that, I don’t think we should risk solid foods,” Melissa says, leaning forward to look at them. She gets a little too close, and Derek growls. Melissa immediately backs away.

“Hey,” Stiles says. Derek looks at him. “She’s trying to help. She’s not a wolf and she’s not armed. You’re fine.”

He says it as gently as he can. He knows Derek can’t completely control his reactions. Derek blinks, then looks down. He starts playing with Stiles’s fingers on the hand he’s got gripped in his own. It’s something he does when he wants to be distracted. Stiles lets him, like he always does, and looks up at Melissa.

“It’s a wolf thing,” he says. “And he’s injured there, too, so he feels extra threatened. Can you make some tomato soup? That’s his favorite.”

Melissa nods. “That should be okay for him to eat. As long as he’s careful. Should I bring some ice out to see if that’ll help the bruises on his arms heal?”

“We can try it,” Stiles nods. Derek’s still playing with his hand, seemingly content.

A few moments later, Melissa brings the ice out, and she hands it to Stiles before going back into the kitchen. Stiles pulls Derek’s arm towards him, and lowers the ice onto one of the bruises.

The reaction is immediate. Derek’s eyes flash blue and he growls, loud and panicked, and swipes his free hand at the bag of ice. Stiles immediately lets go, getting his hand out of the way before Derek’s claws can get to him. The bag of ice doesn’t stand a chance and is ripped to shreds before it hits the ground. Derek’s up on his feet and behind the couch before any of them know what’s happening.

“Whoa!” Stiles says. Lydia and Danny are both staring with wide eyes, and Derek’s panicking, Stiles can feel it. He’s not sure what to do.

“Derek?” he says, and Derek’s eyes snap to his immediately. Stiles wishes for a second Scott was here, because one flash of the Alpha eyes and Derek would realize what was going on. But he’s not, and so _Stiles_ needs to get through to Derek, who is breathing heavily and looks like he’s going to attack one of them.

“Derek,” he says. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

He holds his hands out to the sides, palms facing Derek, trying to keep himself calm. Melissa’s at the doorway of the kitchen, and she looks worried. Danny and Lydia are now behind Stiles, so he doesn’t know what they’re doing, but he hopes they’re staying back. Danny’s not pack, not yet at least, and Lydia’s smaller than Stiles. A better target for a predator, which is what Derek is right now.

Except, _no_ , it’s not, Stiles realizes. Derek’s on defense, not offense. He’s not going to attack them, as long as they don’t attack him. With that in mind, Stiles takes a slow step forward.

“Derek,” he says. “We’re not going to hurt you. Okay? We’re pack. We’re here to protect you.”

There’s a couple of seconds where it’s completely silent. Derek’s staring at Stiles. Stiles is holding his breath. He has no idea what to do if they can’t get through to Derek.

But then Derek’s stance relaxes, and his eyes go back to their usual green. He looks around, apparently confused, and opens his mouth.

“What --?” his voice is raspy, and he immediately stops, grimacing and bringing his hand up to his throat. Stiles winces in sympathy.

“You probably shouldn’t talk for a while,” Melissa says from the doorway. Derek looks at her, looking upset and confused, and Stiles steps up to the couch, holding out his hand.

“Come on,” he says. “You should sit.”

Derek doesn’t protest, letting Stiles pull him around the couch and then sitting down next to Stiles. He looks around the living room, then at Stiles, then grabs the blanket and pulls it back over him, curling back up in Stiles’s lap.

Stiles sighs, but doesn’t fight it. He puts both hands under the blanket and starts running one of them through Derek’s hair. The other is grabbed by Derek’s hand and held tightly.

“So cold sets him off,” Lydia says after a few seconds.

“Apparently,” Stiles agrees. The front door opens just then, and Stiles turns his head to see his dad walking in, carrying a backpack.

“Hi,” Stiles says, casting around for something to say and blurts the first thing he thinks of. “My sleep schedule is so messed up.”

“Mine too,” his dad agrees, coming over and handing the bag to Stiles. “He okay?”

“Well, he let me look him over,” Melissa says.

“Then we tried to ice one of his bruises and it set him off,” Stiles says. “But then he calmed down and tried to ask a question. But his throat hurt too much. And now he’s hiding again.”

“Any news on the others?” his dad asks, sitting down in the other chair.

“You mean what are we feeling?” Stiles asks.

His dad nods. Stiles sighs, remembering the ‘no lying’ rule in place.

“Well, at this very moment, Allison and Isaac are panicking, and Scott is disoriented,” he says. “Which _probably_ means that Scott got hurt somehow. But not too badly, because they’re calming down somewhat. You better not expect me to narrate this fight, because I will go _insane_.”

His dad gives him a look, but doesn’t say anything, and Lydia turns the TV on. They somehow end up on _Mean Girls_ , and Stiles feels Derek shift on his lap before the top of his head peeks out, his eyes fixed on the TV.

Stiles snorts. “Keep it there. You’ve got Derek’s attention.”

Lydia looks back and sees Derek peeking out, and smiles at him. She puts the remote down and they settle back to watch _Mean Girls_. Melissa brings out some tomato soup, which Stiles makes Derek eat a little bit of before he lets him go back under the cover. They can see the bruises are almost gone, which makes all of them breathe easier.

Stiles is keeping a part of his mind on the other pack members through the pack bond instead of watching the movie, because he’s worried and he’s allowed to do that. He feels the fear, and the panic, and hopes to God that they all make it out of this okay.

Even though he’s already paying attention to the others, he’s still caught completely off guard by the sudden onslaught of panic, and he sits bolt upright. Lydia mirrors him, Derek chokes, and even Danny looks off.

And then -- it’s like _nothing_ Stiles has ever felt before. Like a part of him had just been ripped out, and Stiles knows immediately what it means, knows exactly what’s happening, and his dad and Melissa are looking at them with alarm, but Stiles can’t speak.

Then, as suddenly as it had disappeared, the piece slams back in, and Stiles takes a deep breathe as the world sets back down where it’s supposed to be. He slumps back against the couch, feeling relief flood through him.

“Holy _shit_ ,” is all Stiles can say. Derek takes the blanket off of his face and looks up. He’s halfway shifted, and looks like he’s about to be sick. Lydia doesn’t look much better. Danny’s pale, but he’s calmer.

“What the hell just happened?” Melissa demands. Stiles lets out a shaky breath and pulls himself together.

“Isaac -- for a second Isaac was, you know,” he can’t say it. “We felt it. Holy _shit_.”

Derek rolls off his lap and stumbles out of the living room. They hear the bathroom door close and Stiles winces. He knows Derek lost more than one person at once before, and he doesn’t know how Derek made it through that feeling. But -- after all he’d been through, whatever that was, to be hit with that feeling right after that couldn’t have been good for Derek.

“Is Isaac okay now?” Melissa asks. Stiles nods.

“I think so,” he says. “Scott and Allison are okay, too.”

The toilet flushes and Derek comes back out, sitting down on the couch next to Stiles again. He doesn’t go directly underneath the blanket again, but he doesn’t look around, either. He’s fully human, but he’s pale and sweaty. He looks like he has the flu, and it makes Stiles nervous.

Stiles isn’t looking at Lydia, so he has no warning when she suddenly says, “Crap,” then _screams_. He jumps hard enough to fall off the couch and ends up tangled up in his comforter on the floor as the scream dies off.

“Jesus _Christ_ , enough!” Stiles yells. A hand pulls the comforter off of his face, and Derek looks down at him.

“That’s the banshee scream, right?” Melissa says.

“Somebody grab Lydia,” Stiles says quickly as he grabs Derek’s hand and tries to pull himself out.

“Danny’s got her,” Stiles’s dad said.

“Chances are definitely good that she’s heading to wherever the hell the others are,” Stiles says, finally pulling himself up. “But we can’t risk her going on her own. Just in case.”

“Derek can’t go,” Melissa says. Derek blinks, and then looks extremely annoyed. Stiles is glad to see him showing some life, and turns back to Melissa.

“I _have_ to go,” he says. “And Derek’s not going to stay here without me. That would be a bad idea.”

Derek directs the annoyed look at him.

“Don’t give me that look, you’ve been curled up in my lap,” Stiles says. Derek sighs.

“Why do you have to be there?” Stiles’s dad asks, narrowing his eyes at Stiles.

“I’m always the first one Lydia calls when she finds a dead body,” Stiles says. “It’s a thing. In case it was something we needed to cover up. And if it’s not where the others are, then _somebody_ who knows what’s going on has to be there, and you’ve already got one crime scene to take care of. If it _is_ where the others are, then I want to make sure Isaac’s okay, and check in with Scott, in case we need to do damage control.”

His dad is staring at him. “You’ve thought about this way too much.”

“I think about everything way too much,” Stiles points out.

It takes a couple of minutes, but they finally agree that Stiles and Derek will go with Lydia and Danny in Danny’s car. Melissa’s riding in the cruiser with Stiles’s dad, and she’ll sit with Derek in Danny’s car while the others figure out what they need. Derek brings Stiles’s comforter in the car, and swipes a knit cap of Stiles’s, his new one that he’d got for Christmas from Melissa, placing it on his head and refusing to take it off. Stiles doesn’t bother to argue. He just gets in the backseat with Derek and starts to plan out what he needs to do.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Okay, so I don't think I really have anything to say about this scene except how do people in trances or sleepwalkers drive so well because that's slightly terrifying.
> 
> Also, hey, I have a tumblr, so if you wanna check mine out, click [here](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Beta's by the awesome [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

John doesn’t know _how_ Stiles, Derek, and Danny are okay with riding in a car driven by someone in a trance. He’s not even in the car and he’s nervous about it. He’d been distracted last time she’d done it, so he’s surprised when he sees how good of a driver she is. He has no idea how that works, and from the sound of it, neither does Melissa.

“ _How_?” he says as they watch her park _absolutely perfectly_.

“I don’t have a clue,” Melissa says.

“I still think Derek should have stayed back at our house,” he says.

“And you’re right,” Melissa says. “Problem is, so is Stiles.”

He sighs. “Yeah. I know. When did the world get so backwards on us?”

“When we had kids,” Melissa says. John lets out a laugh and parks the next to Danny’s car. Lydia’s already out and heading towards an office building. Danny’s a couple of steps behind her, but Stiles is hanging back by the car, and doesn’t move until Melissa’s there. Then he sprints and catches up with them.

“Seriously?” he says.

“An office building?” Danny asks.

“That was our reaction, too,” Scott’s voice says. Lydia blinks out of her trance at the sound of his voice. Danny jumps. Stiles turns to the left, raising an eyebrow. John follows his example.

“What happened to ‘call as soon as you’re done?’” Stiles demands as Scott comes closer. John sees blood on the side of his head, and remembers what Stiles had said about Scott being hurt. There’s blood on his hands, and his shirt, and he looks exhausted.

“Sorry,” he says, looking it. Stiles deflates immediately.

“What the hell happened to you?” Lydia demands.

“He got thrown into a table,” Chris’s voice says from their left, and John turns to see him walking towards him. Allison and Isaac are right behind him. Isaac’s shirt is drenched in blood and hanging partially off of him, ripped at one shoulder. Isaac’s not very steady, but his eyes are alert, and John can’t see any open wounds on him. Allison looks shaken but unhurt.

“ _Jesus_ ,” Danny blurts. “That is a lot of blood.”

“He took a bullet for me,” Scott growls.

“Instinct,” Allison says.

“He _died_ ,” Scott says, and there’s a flash of red accompanying those two words. “You are _not_ allowed to do that for me.”

“Well, we’re not just going to let you die,” Stiles’s voice is angry.

“Save the pack business for later,” John cuts in. “And tell us what happened.”

Scott gives him a quick explanation. He stumbles over some parts, and there’s still anger in his voice when he talks about Isaac taking the bullet for him, but he gets through it. Then he looks around and says, “Derek?”

“He’s in Danny’s car with your mom,” Stiles says. “He’s responsive. And healing. I think he’ll be okay.”

Scott slumps in relief and says, “Okay. This is your area of expertise. Ask your questions.”

“He had the place booby-trapped?” Stiles asks. “You said the cabinet exploded.”

“I think there was a grenade,” Scott says. “I’m not sure, though. I mean, _the cabinet exploded_. I hit a _table_. My head’s still scrambled.”

“Don’t let your mom hear that,” Stiles says. John rolls his eyes.

“Why are you asking, anyway?” Scott asks, settling down on the sidewalk.

“To make sure there’s no other traps,” Stiles says. “Remember when we were looking for Lydia when she was missing last year? There were traps _everywhere_.”

“That was before Gerard got to town,” Allison pipes up.

“What time was this?” John swears he is going to force his son down and get _every little detail_ of _every single story_ out of him.

“You remember, Lydia vanished from the hospital?” Stiles says. John thinks about it, then rolls his eyes.

“When you spent the entire weekend there?” he asks.

“That’s the one,” Stiles nods.

“You’re talking about the time you pulled the trip wire and strung me upside down?” Scott asks Stiles.

“Well, yeah,” Stiles says. “Pretty sure that’s the only time Lydia’s gone missing in the woods for two days.”

“That you know of,” Lydia says. She grins.

“I remember that,” Allison says.

“ _I_ remember that,” Chris narrows his eyes. “I thought you were alone out there.”

“You threatened to cut me in half,” Scott says flatly. “I think we can all agree to move on from it.”

Chris sighs and nods. John tries not to laugh.

“Back on topic,” he says. “Could there be more traps?”

Chris shakes his head. “If there were, we probably would have already set them off. I went through the building looking for other people. And to see if this was where they held Derek.”

“Was it?” Stiles asks.

“It was,” Chris says. “And _none of you are going in there_.”

“Of course not,” Stiles says. “With our luck, Derek would scent it on me, and that wouldn’t be helpful.”

John sighs. “All that aside, I should probably see it, if we’re doing this the cover up way.”

“Honestly, I’m tempted to just clean it up and forget it happened,” Chris says. “Follow hunter protocol.”

John’s tempted to agree, but Stiles suddenly says, “No, you can’t.”

“Why _not_?” Scott actually whines.

“Because Gerard,” Stiles says. “That’s his play.”

“What’s his play?” John prompts, because Stiles has stopped speaking. He’s got the look on his face that means he’s figured something out. John doesn’t have a clue what Stiles means, and from the look of it, neither does anyone else.

“Gerard plays for Gerard,” Stiles says. “And revenge. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He was either going to die or be cured, and either way he was going to take Scott down with him.”

He looks at Scott. “You said he tried to dump wolfsbane on you guys? But then he tried to make you cure him. It’s one of those ‘if I can’t have it no one can’ things. If you’d cured him, he would have killed you. If you’d resisted, he would have killed you. Either way, he would have killed you. Peter messed it up.”

“Okay, so why can’t we just clean it up?” Chris asks, annoyed.

“Because Gerard’s a deceitful and paranoid jackass,” Stiles says. “He knows hunter protocol, he’s probably got it set up so if he died and Scott lived for whatever reason, his death would be pinned on Scott. If you just clean it up and don’t investigate, then there will be some documents that just magically show up at the station, implementing Scott in his death, and you’ll have nothing to prove it false.”

He hesitates, then says, “Probably not just Scott. It probably includes me, Derek, Allison, and Chris, too. So you _have_ to process this scene, or we’re all fucked.”

It’s quiet for a few seconds while everyone digests that. Then Chris sighs.

“He’s right. My father was very careful about backup plans. And even if he isn’t right, it’s better to just get this over with.”

Scott lets out a groan. “Can we spread a rumor saying I’m dead? So people stop coming after me and my pack? Please?”

“Wouldn’t work, buddy,” Stiles says. “Too many factors would have to go into that story; and besides, with Deucalion and the twins out there, it’s likely people already know your name.”

Scott drops his head into his hands. “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“Actually, my dad had a good idea,” Stiles says, and John looks at him, raising an eyebrow.

“You say that like it’s uncommon,” he says.

“What?” Stiles gives him a grin. “No. I meant the networking thing. I’m still not sure how we would do it, but if we could, it would give us more of an advantage. Or at least boost our standing a bit more than we have now.”

“Networking? How?” Scott asks. Stiles waves a hand.

“I’ll explain it later,” he says. “Now what?”

“ _Now_ , you guys go home,” John says. “ _I_ handle this. You guys have school in a couple of hours.”

Stiles shifts on his feet, looking nervous. John sighs. “What?”

“We can’t leave Derek alone.”

“Who went to school yesterday?” Scott asks. John resists the urge to groan. The pack, while Derek was missing, had taken turns going to school. Scott, Allison, and Lydia had gone the first day, Stiles and Isaac the second. The day before Scott, Isaac, and Lydia had gone, which meant technically that Stiles and Allison should go today (Danny had gone all days; John wasn’t sure if he was pack yet or not). He wasn’t happy about this situation, but considering what had happened, he was just glad they were making some sort of effort in going to school.

Scott’s teetering on the edge of saying something, and he’s pushing himself to a standing position, which makes John think he’s about to speak as Alpha instead of Scott. And he’s right, because Scott assumes the posture John associates with pack business.

“You don’t have to go Alpha on me with pack business,” he raises an eyebrow. “Just say it.”

“Sorry,” Scott says, but his posture doesn’t relax. “I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”

“At least he can’t pull rank on you,” Stiles says.

“He tried to do it to me earlier,” Chris mumbles.

“Speaking of!” Scott suddenly looks at Stiles. “ _You_ need to learn how to tell the entire truth. You forgot to mention some details about a certain championship game last year.”

Stiles looks confused for a few seconds before his eyes widen in horror and he opens his mouth before closing it and looking to the side. John doesn’t know what that’s about, and wonders if he wants to know.

Stiles looks up again, but his gaze lands on Chris. “You knew?”

John is _really_ confused now, because Stiles’s tone was hurt and angry, and Chris looks uncomfortable.

“No,” he says. “Gerard mentioned it a few months ago. I figured whoever needed to know did, and bringing it up wouldn’t help anything. I didn’t know you hadn’t told anybody.”

“What the _hell_ are you talking about?” John can’t help it. Something had happened to Stiles and everyone (well, not everyone; Danny and Lydia look as stumped as he is) knew about it. Stiles won’t look at him, so it’s safe to say it’s not a good memory. Scott looks pissed off, Isaac looks like he’s trying to disappear, and Allison looks murderous.

It’s quiet for a few seconds, and John’s just going through the pack members, deciding which one would be easiest to break, when Isaac suddenly clears his throat and says, “Remember when Stiles disappeared after the championship game last year?”

“Yeah,” John remembers very clearly. He looks at Stiles. His son is literally vibrating with what looks like angry energy, but he’s not moving to stop Isaac. “You’re going to tell me it wasn’t members of the other team?”

“It was Gerard,” Stiles says flatly. “Took me from the field and locked me in the basement, then beat me up to try and send a message to Scott.”

John takes a second to digest this. He wants desperately to grab Stiles in a hug and not let go, but Stiles is seconds from bolting and he doesn’t want to set him off. Lydia looks horrified, and Danny looks like he’s about to be sick.

There’s movement to John’s left, and he turns his head to see Derek, wearing Stiles’s hat and still wrapped in Stiles’s blanket. He inserts himself between Scott and Stiles, and they step to make some more room for him to stand there. Stiles looks too surprised to be angry anymore, which John suspects was Derek’s goal, and even Scott’s relaxing.

Melissa comes up on John’s other side and stands next to him.

“He was listening,” she says. Stiles still looks surprised, and John swallows, feeling awful. Derek _looks_ awful, younger than he usually does, with Stiles’s hat pulled down over his ears. He’s leaning on Stiles, and is staring at the ground, like he’s not really interested in anything.

John clears his throat. “So, Mr. Alpha, you were about to say something?”

Scott blinks at him, startled, before his expression clears and he says, “Oh! Well. I was going to say Isaac should definitely stay home, because he was injured, and badly, he’s going to need some rest. And...I think Stiles should stay home, too, because,” he gestures at Derek, who lifts his head, somewhat interested now.

“You should stay home, too,” Allison says. “You hit your head pretty hard.”

“I’m fine,” Scott looks annoyed.

“Bullshit,” Stiles says. “You said earlier your head was still scrambled.”

“ _Dude_ ,” Scott glares at him.

“ _Revenge_ ,” Stiles glares back. John sighs and gives up.

“Not that this isn’t fascinating,” he says. “But I have a job I need to do that I can’t do with all of you here. Stiles can miss today, go away.”

Stiles beams at him, and then hurries forward to give him a hug. John squeezes him before patting him on the shoulder and waving him away. Chris is hesitating, though, and John gives him a questioning look.

“I think I’ll stay,” he says, and he tosses his keys to Allison, who catches them, looking confused. “You can stay home, too, if you’d like.”

“Why are you staying?” she asks.

“There’s something I need to show the sheriff,” Chris says. John narrows his eyes, but doesn’t argue. He watches everyone leave. Scott, Allison, Isaac, and Melissa go in the Argent’s SUV. Danny, Lydia, Stiles, and Derek go back in Danny’s car. It’s not until they’re far down the road that Chris turns to John and says, “The room where they kept Derek. It’s not pretty. None of this is pretty. You haven’t seen the mess yet.”

John sighs. “I’m sure it’s bad. Might as well get this over with.”

Chris leads him inside, and he looks around the room. The room is an absolute mess, and there’s papers everywhere. There’s one body on the ground: a man, whose head is in a pool of blood.

“Explosion,” Chris gestures to it. “He had a taser, it hit Isaac. Scott’s control snapped, he tackled the man who hit his head on that table. Scott got up, leaned against the cabinet, it exploded, threw that man there and Scott landed there,” he points at a table lying on its side. “Isaac recovered quickly, we took cover behind the table while Scott healed. Slowly. But he was lying on his back and saw this,” Chris points up. John looks and sees what looks like an open vent.

“They had wolfsbane,” Chris says. “Would have killed Scott and Isaac fairly quickly, burning their skin. They react faster to it than humans do. Scott, with his history of asthma, might have suffocated first.”

John narrows his eyes. “It worries me that you know that.”

“We’re allies now,” Chris says. “I messed up in the past. I know that. And I don’t excuse it.”

John nods, accepting that. Chris leads him into a hallway. It’s a gruesome sight.

Gerard Argent is in a wheelchair, slumped over. Peter Hale is on the floor not far from him, lying on his back. There’s another separate pool of blood on the floor next to him with no discernable source, and further down the hall, there are three men, lying in different positions, all clearly dead.

“Jesus,” John says. Chris makes a noise of agreement.

“This,” he gestures to the random blood spot next to Peter, “is all Isaac.”

John stares at it. “That is a _lot_ of blood. How is he alive?”

“Werewolf,” Chris says. “They’re much more endurable than we are. It’ll take him a day or two to feel normal, though. Now, the good news is Peter killed all of those men, and all of the bullets in Peter are from Gerard and his people. The bad news is Isaac’s blood is all over this.”

John sighs. “What about the room?”

“That’s this way,” Chris points and starts stepping carefully over the blood. John follows, trying not to disturb anything on the floor. This is going to be one hell of a long case. He already has a headache.

Chris stops outside the room. He lets out a breath. “Okay. I didn’t let any of the pack see this, because it would have made everything worse.”

“We’re in agreement there,” John says. He hasn’t even seen the room yet and he knows he’s never going to let Stiles see it. These crime scene photos are staying locked up in his office, and Stiles is going nowhere near it until he can properly hide them.

Chris nods, and then pulls a glove out of his pocket and puts it on. He opens the door and holds it open for John. He follows Chris in and sees a short staircase.

“Does the owner know about this?” John wonders.

“My guess is the owner is one of the ones lying in the hallway,” Chris says. He leads John down the short staircase and into a darker room. It’s _freezing_ , and John remembers Stiles saying something about ice setting Derek off. He’s pretty sure that’s why.

The first thing he notices when he's fully in the room is the horrible variety of smells. It's awful and strong, and John has to breathe through his mouth for a couple seconds. He can usually deal with this, but everywhere he looks, he's reminded that this happened to Derek. His son's boyfriend. It makes everything so much more intense.

There are five chains on the wall. John can see why Derek's neck was so bruised: one of them ends in a metal collar. The chains are far enough apart that Derek would have been constantly off-balance, or even hanging. The chains are covered in dry blood, and there's blood and other liquid stains on the floor.  

The worst part is the things on the table, though. There are all kinds of tools for torturing there, some John’s never even seen in real life before. There’s some sort of electrical charger, all kinds of knives, a box labeled ‘wolfsbane,’ a cloth soaking in some sort of liquid, all kinds of things. And all of it looks _used_. Not freshly used; no, the tools are clean. But it’s obvious that they’re not new. The box with wolfsbane is open and mostly empty. The handles of the knives are well worn. John feels sick and thinks Derek’s reaction is rather rational, considering everything he can see.

“I’m not a wolf,” Chris says. “So I can’t catch the scents, but I’m pretty sure some of those liquid stains on the floor aren’t just water.”

John’s suddenly very glad Scott and Isaac weren’t allowed in. He decides to double his efforts in hiding this from Stiles, because his son has an overactive imagination. He does not need to see this.

He decides he’s had enough of the room and they head back out into the lobby, the mess from the earlier explosion still there. He’s about to suggest they call for backup when there’s a noise behind them. Chris spins around and yells, “Look out!”

Before John can even comprehend what’s going on, there’s a loud noise, and he’s thrown off of his feet. He hits the ground, landing on his left shoulder. He’s pretty sure it’s dislocated, but he doesn’t have time to figure it out, because there’s gunshots, and he can’t figure out where they’re coming from. He’s unarmed ( _that_ was very stupid of him, why didn’t he think of bringing a weapon) so he crawls forward behind a table and ducks behind it, ignoring his shoulder.

Then the gunshots stop, and he carefully raises his head. Chris is across the room, on one knee, weapon pointed at a doorway. There’s a cut on his forehead that’s bleeding, but John doesn’t see any other wounds.

“We missed one,” Chris says. “He ran.”

John has a feeling this is going to be a bigger pain in the ass than he’d been anticipating.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So random point, but in Riddled there was a police officer there that I believe was named Cordova. So. That's where this guy comes from later on. Also, Scott and Stiles remind me of Harry and Ron, so there's a point where what happens might remind you of them, too. It wasn't on purpose, but it's definitely there. This chapter was born because I've been ignoring Allison by accident.
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

Allison is grateful her dad said she could stay home today, because she’s not up to dealing with her classmates right now. She’s trying hard to convince herself that everything that had happened earlier hadn’t freaked her out, but she doesn’t actually believe it.

It’s not like she has to put up a front. Scott’s not even pretending he’s not upset, and Isaac’s asleep on one of the chairs, wearing one of Stiles’s shirts since his own had been covered in blood. Derek’s curled up on Stiles’s lap again, wrapped up in the blanket, and even Stiles seems to be agitated. They’ve got _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ marathoning, because Stiles had randomly picked something. Derek’s watching it intently. Scott’s staring at the ceiling, and Stiles is messing around with his phone. It’s peaceful, and yet Allison can’t calm down.

Lydia and Danny had left to go home before school only twenty minutes prior. Lydia hadn’t been happy and had only gone after Scott had given up his turn in the movie night rotation. Even then, she’d been grouchy. Danny had left with his usual mellow look. Scott had said they were inviting him to the pack, but he hadn’t actually done so. Allison thinks he’s waiting for a calmer time to do so.

“Fucking Flappy Bird,” Stiles says suddenly. Allison snorts.

“That’s what you’re doing?” Scott doesn’t turn from the ceiling. “ _Dude_. That game sucks.”

“You’re telling me,” Stiles sighs, putting his phone down. Allison looks between them and grimaces. There’s tension there. She’s not terribly surprised, given the whole conversation at the office building earlier, but it’s always weird to see Scott and Stiles out of sync. When she’d started dating Scott, she’d learned that Scott came as a package deal with his quirky and animated best friend, and that was that. Not that she minded; she liked Stiles. He and Scott balanced each other out perfectly. They were different, but it _worked_ for them.

Which is why Stiles makes the perfect second to Scott’s first, and is also why this tension is unsettling. She knows the two of them are likely to put it off even longer, so she clears her throat and says, “Talk it out before I set Lydia on both of you.”

Scott doesn’t move. Stiles blinks at her. She sighs. “Don’t do that. I can feel the tension.”

“ _I_ can feel the tension,” Isaac mutters, sounding half-awake.

“Me, too,” Derek says quietly. It’s the first thing Allison’s heard him say since he came back, but he’s still looking at the screen, and seems content to stay out of it. He’s still got Stiles’s hat on. She has a feeling he’s not getting that back.

It’s quiet for a few seconds. Allison doesn’t know what to do if the two of them decide to try and out-stubborn the other. It’s a crappy situation, and Scott had picked an absolutely _horrible_ time to bring it up, especially in front of Stiles’s dad and when tempers were running short. She knows that Scott’s blaming himself for it happening, and he’s upset that Stiles didn’t tell him. But she also knows that Stiles hates feeling useless, and being used like that by Gerard had probably hurt him more than he’s ever going to admit.

It explains Stiles’s quiet avoidance of her _before_ she’d broken up with Scott and his un-Stiles-like behavior that night at the warehouse. She’d always wondered.

It’s almost a minute later when Scott sits up straight and says, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up right then. I should have waited until we were alone.”

Stiles stares at him, then nods slowly. “I’m not going to apologize for not telling you. That wasn’t to hurt you or even to protect my pride. That was because I wasn’t doing shit for Gerard.”

“Yeah,” Scott says. “Sorry you got caught up in a power play.”

“Not your fault,” Stiles waves his hand. They grin at each other, and just like that, they’re back to normal. Allison is amazed.

“You two are unbelievably stupid,” she says.

“It’s a talent,” Stiles says. Scott’s staring at the ceiling again, but his posture is much more relaxed. Allison doesn’t understand. At all.

Stiles’s phone starts ringing and he looks at it and gives it a confused look for a second before answering it. “Hello?”

Allison watches him for lack of anything else to do, and his expression goes from confused to terrified in less than a second. She can feel his sudden rush of fear through the pack bond, and it startles Isaac awake. Scott’s sitting up straight again, and Derek’s looking at him.

“What?” Stiles says quickly. “When? What happened? Is he okay?”

There’s only one ‘he’ Allison can think of that isn’t in the room that would cause Stiles to be _that_ worried, and that’s his dad. Something had to have happened, something bad.

It hits her right then that her dad had been with Sheriff Stilinski. If something had happened to the sheriff, was her dad okay? She feels fear start to build in her and wishes she had werewolf hearing, because all three of the werewolves are clearly listening in on Stiles’s conversation.

Stiles lets out a breath and covers his eyes with his hand. “You should have led with that.”

Everything about his posture says relief, and his voice is shaky. Allison knows how he feels.

“Yeah, no, I’ll tell her,” Stiles says, and Scott’s eyes flick over to Allison. She knows she’s the ‘her’ Stiles is referring to and feels worse than before. “Yeah, we’ll probably be there soon. Thanks.”

Stiles hangs up, his hand still over his eyes. “I’m am so very done with this shit.”

“What happened?” Allison demands. “I know the ‘her’ was me.”

“Apparently we missed someone,” Stiles says, taking his hand off of his eyes. They’re brighter than usual, but otherwise he seems to be in control. “And they set off a grenade. Our dads were in the room, but they’re both okay. Relatively. My dad’s shoulder is dislocated, and your dad has a cut on his forehead that had to get stitches -- but they’re fine.”

Allison slumps in relief. “And they say we’re trouble magnets.”

“We _are_ trouble magnets,” Scott says.

“It’s their fault,” Stiles says jokingly. “Anyway, Scott’s mom says we have to go pick them up, because neither of them are allowed to drive.”

He’s got a shit-eating grin on his face. Allison is amused. “That’ll just make their days.”

“That it will,” Stiles agrees. “We should take your car and make them both come back here and be as obnoxious as possible.”

“Don’t antagonize your parents,” Scott says, once again staring at the ceiling. “They’ve been pretty awesome for the past couple of days.”

Allison hesitates, because that’s totally true. Stiles pouts, but nods.

“Yeah,” he says. He pokes Derek in the side. “You coming with or staying here? You think my dad would let me drive his cruiser?”

“Don’t forget your Adderall,” Scott says.

“Right!” Stiles blinks. “I _did_ forget that. Except I was hoping to nap, and if I take Adderall, it’ll keep me up.”

“You’re not allowed to drive unmedicated,” Scott says. “Remember last time?”

“ _One time_ ,” Stiles groans. “It hasn’t happened since!”

Allison wonders for a moment what had happened, then realizes who they’re talking about. She _really_ doesn’t want to know. Isaac, however, looks interested, and Derek is tracking this conversation with a vague kind of curiosity on his face. Scott’s grinning, so it can’t have been too bad, but Stiles looks almost uncomfortable.

No, she’s not curious enough to make him tell another story he doesn’t want to. She stands and heads to the back of the couch, where everyone had basically dumped their jackets when they’d arrived, and starts tossing jackets at people.

“You haven’t driven unmedicated since,” Scott points out, sitting up to catch his.

“Not true!” Stiles says. Then he seems to realize what he said. “I mean, what?”

Allison laughs and tosses him his jacket. “Smooth.”

“Derek, for future reference, if he’s off his meds don’t let him drive,” Scott says. Derek glances at him, then nods.

“Traitor,” Stiles mutters.

“It’s for your own safety,” Scott says.

“Technically you shouldn’t drive, either,” Allison says. “You had a head injury.”

“ _I_ don’t want to drive,” Scott says. “Furthermore, I don’t have a vehicle.”

“This conversation is completely pointless, can we please just go?” Stiles says. He pokes Derek again. “Seriously, you coming or staying?”

Derek pushes himself off of Stiles, dumps the comforter on the floor, and then grabs his hand.

“Coming,” Stiles nods and stands up, pulling Derek’s jacket off the couch himself. “Allison, you can drive, since the rest of us are apparently incompetent.”

“You’re so dramatic,” Scott rolls his eyes. “You coming, Isaac?”

“Do I have a choice?” Isaac mumbles, and pushes himself off the chair.

“Well, yes, you do, but we’re going to override it anyway,” Stiles says, swinging his and Derek’s hands back and forth. Derek seems to be hypnotized by this, and Allison’s pretty sure he’s stopped listening to them. She looks around the room, and suddenly realizes something.

“There are too many people here,” she says.

“I’ll get my mom to let me drive her car,” Scott catches on immediately. “I can go pick her up later.”

Stiles makes an annoyed noise at this contradiction, but doesn’t say anything. Allison’s pretty sure they’ve won this argument, and pulls her jacket on. Stiles digs out an extra jacket of the sheriff’s for Isaac to wear and they go out the door.

“How is it only _Thursday_?” Stiles complains as they head out to the car. He and Derek are in the backseat, and Scott climbs in with them. Isaac climbs in front. Allison starts the car.

“I know,” Scott says. “It feels like it’s been weeks since the dinner.”

“It feels like it’s been weeks since this morning,” Allison says. She sees Scott grimace in the rearview mirror.

“Does anyone know if we told anyone at the station that we found Derek?” Stiles says. “Because I really don’t think we did. In which case this is going to be very awkward.”

“You should ask your dad that question,” Isaac mutters.

“Oh, good idea,” Stiles says sarcastically. “Except he hasn’t answered that text yet.”

“So ask my mom,” Scott says. Stiles lets out an annoyed huff, but calls Melissa. Allison can’t hear her on the phone, but gathers from Stiles’s side of the conversation that the sheriff had told some of the other officers that Derek had shown up on their doorstep in the middle of the night. She’s not surprised.

“So the reason we didn’t immediately call?” Stiles asks. “Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. We’re almost there. _No,_ they wouldn’t let me drive. I haven’t taken my Adderall.”

“Oh, my _God_ , Stiles, your Jeep can only take so much,” Scott groans at his offended tone.

“I don’t want to know,” Allison says, now more sure than ever.

“No, you really don’t,” Scott agrees. Isaac mutters something under his breath, but Allison’s not a werewolf, so she can’t hear it. It makes Scott laugh, though, and Derek makes a strangled noise like he’s trying not to laugh. It’s good to see him showing some life. Derek isn’t her favorite person in the pack and will never be, but no one should have to go through what he did, and he’s pack. She’s human, but the instincts are still there, just like they are for Stiles.

“Thanks, bye,” Stiles says and hangs up. “Okay, so just so we’re all in agreement in case you get asked, the reason my dad and I didn’t call the station when Derek showed up was because I thought it was a bad idea for him to be swarmed by police officers. Which is basically what’s about to happen.”

“Is anyone going to buy that?” Allison asks. She’s not trying to make it sound like it’s a dumb idea, just genuinely curious. She hadn’t known why Stiles and his dad hadn’t called the station, and it hadn’t even occurred to her until later that they should have. Then again, her expertise in the pack is hunting, not police work. That’s Stiles and his dad’s territory.

“Doesn’t matter if they do or not, it’s basically true,” Stiles says. “And we need to _not_ piss anyone off, in case this all goes sideways on us. We might need allies. I don’t know what story they’ve told to explain why they were at the office building with a lot of dead bodies. So we’re all going to play dumb on that. Got it?”

Allison nods, and she can see Isaac nod, too. Scott makes an annoyed noise.

“Do you really think he’s got it set up so it blames me for his death?” he asks.

“Yeah, I do,” Stiles says. “It’s what I would do. Gerard wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t impulsive. I keep hoping I’m wrong, or that he picked someone else to pin them on, but I’m not putting much faith in that.”

Scott sighs. “And I was hoping to make it to my senior year without going to jail.”

“You won’t go to jail,” Stiles says. “You’ll probably have to go in for questioning, but you didn’t kill those guys.”

“But how do we prove that?” Allison asks as she parks in front of the hospital.

“I’m working on it,” Stiles says, climbing out. Allison raises an eyebrow, but he just shrugs. He’s got the look on his face that means he’s thinking about it, so Allison drops it and walks toward the entrance to the hospital. She senses rather than sees the rest of them follow her.

As they enter the hospital, Allison sees Melissa McCall standing at the front desk, looking exhausted. Allison doesn’t know how she’s still going after everything that had happened, and is hit by the reminder of how much she admires Scott’s mom. She thinks they’re all pretty lucky. They have awesome parents.

Melissa turns and sees them. Her face breaks into a smile, one that reminds Allison so much of Scott’s, and walks towards them. Allison lets Scott pass her, falling back to walk next to Stiles. Derek’s on his other side, and Isaac’s on the other side of Derek, in a poorly disguised attempt to protect him. The older werewolf is staring at the ground, seemingly calm, but Allison can see the fist he’s making with the hand that isn’t clutching Stiles’s, and can feel his distress through the pack bond. She falls back behind them, deciding to make sure no one sneaks up on Derek, especially when he’s so jumpy.

It works, albeit minutely. His fist relaxes, though he doesn’t look back to acknowledge her. Stiles does, though, and he gives her a bright smile that she can’t help but return. She feels weirdly relieved, too, because this is an obvious show of trust from Derek, and Allison knows that Derek doesn’t really have a reason to trust her, considering how much her family’s hurt him. Scott had once taken her aside, shortly after Derek had come back, and spoken to her quietly about what her aunt had done, a story she hadn’t known the details of, and reminded her of what she’d done to hurt Boyd, Erica, and Isaac before.

“Derek’s not completely innocent, but neither are you,” he’d said. “Don’t forget that, okay? You guys have been on opposite sides for a long time, but we’re all on the same side now. Just don’t antagonize him. Okay?”

Allison had agreed, more out of wanting to keep the peace than anything else. The history between them had been too much at first to completely ignore, but after a few weeks of quiet and time to just get to know Derek, she’d realized that her bias was still in the way. She’d had a _very_ long talk with her dad, and had came to grips with the fact that Derek wasn’t a bad guy. He was her fellow pack member now, and that came first. And now they have a tentative friendship going, and Allison is going to honor it. Especially considering how vulnerable Derek is right now.

“They’re right through here,” Melissa says, addressing Allison and Stiles instead of Scott. Not for the first time, Allison wonders what would happen if the parents joined the pack. It’ll never happen, but it’s fun to think about. She suspects it would bring either utter chaos or a new Alpha.

Melissa leads them down the hallway to what Allison remembers to be a private waiting room. Halfway to the door, Melissa stops Scott and says, “There are several officers in there. They’re going to see Derek and immediately start asking questions.”

“Which ones are here?” Stiles asks. Allison can’t possibly figure out _why_ that’s relevant, and by the look of it, Melissa can’t either, but she answers the question.

“Uh, I think their names are Parrish, Cordova, and Holt?” she says. Stiles narrows his eyes at the last one, but nods.

“Why?” Scott looks bewildered.

“The first two have worked at the station for a while, they both know me,” Stiles says. “And I know them. They’re good guys. The last one is a new deputy, and he’s overeager and drives my dad absolutely nuts. I think he’s one of those guys who became an officer because it looked cool on TV. I trust Parrish and Cordova to handle a case like this. Not Holt.”

“What about your dad?” Isaac asks, raising an eyebrow.

Stiles shakes his head. “My dad’s too involved now. Even if they _did_ come up with a good story for why they were at that building this morning, he’ll probably be sidelined. Not to mention his shoulder.”

Melissa nods at Stiles. “He’s right.”

“Of course he is,” Scott says. He sounds slightly frustrated, and now Stiles is narrowing his eyes at him, a calculating look on his face. Allison doesn’t know what he’s about to say, but Stiles knows better than anybody when to back off when it comes to Scott, and instead of barreling on ahead like he usually would, he lets out a long breath.

“Come on,” he says instead. He looks at Derek. “You good?”

Derek looks for all the world about to bolt for the door. Allison’s pretty sure the only reason he hasn’t already done so is because he’s still got Stiles’s hand. He’s pale, and doesn’t look steady, and Stiles turns to Scott and says, “Go on ahead. Tell my dad we’ll be right in.”

Scott nods, his face full of concern. Allison feels it, too, and knows that there’s nothing any of them can really do for Derek. Stiles has the best chance of calming him down, and if he can’t calm down, Stiles will take care of him. He’s good at that. So she follows Scott into the waiting room and, after hugging her dad and checking that he really was okay, sits down, waiting for Derek and Stiles.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so this story is really really really long compared to the other ones and I am actually pretty proud of it. Thank you everyone who has read them, and thank you for all the kudos, and all of the comments! I really enjoy reading them and seeing them, even if I don't always respond. I don't always know how to respond. But I do appreciate them all.
> 
> Come check out my [Tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

Scott leads the pack into the waiting room. He doesn’t like leaving his pack member in that state, doesn’t like that Derek’s on the verge of a panic attack, but he’s pretty sure crowding Derek will just make it worse. He has to trust Stiles to handle it. Stiles is smart and experienced with panic attacks. He’s talked Scott down from one, and he knows Derek best.

He still wants to charge outside and help him. It’s a helpless feeling and it’s frustrating him, just as much as Stiles’s prediction of Gerard’s plan. Which is whole other deal he doesn’t want to focus on.

So he looks around the room and sees that Chris and John are both okay, if a bit groggy, and the three other officers look surprised but aren’t stopping him and Isaac from coming in.

Allison immediately goes over to her dad hugs him before checking to make sure he really is okay. John fixes Scott with a questioning look, obviously wondering where his son is.

“He’s in the hallway with Derek,” Scott says. “Derek’s a bit freaked out.”

That’s an understatement if Scott’s ever given one, and he can tell that John knows it. He just nods. Scott can see what Stiles means immediately about the officers: the one whose nametag says ‘Parrish’ on it looks concerned. Cordova looks understanding. Holt, on the other hand, looks impatient, and Scott casually moves to lean against the wall between him and the door. He can’t calm Derek down, but he _can_ protect him from anything else adding onto it. If Holt makes a move for the door, Scott will punch him.

Scott will freely admit that he’s listening in on Derek and Stiles. He’s not really inclined to let Derek out of sight at the moment. He’s not really inclined to let _any_ of them out of his sight, but that’s just the overprotective Alpha side of him speaking. It’s not rational.

He can hear Stiles talking quietly to Derek and decides not to listen in on the words. Instead, he focuses on both their heartbeats. Stiles’s is as calm and as steady as Scott can expect, given the fact that they _are_ in a hospital. Stiles has hated hospitals ever since his mom died, and Scott can’t really fault him for it. Derek’s heartbeat is jumpy and all over the place, but as the minutes go by, it starts to slow, and Scott’s relieved to note that by the time Holt is starting to edge towards the door, Derek and Stiles are already on their way in.

It’s probably not obvious to anyone without werewolf senses, but Scott can tell how absolutely horrible Derek feels. It’s more the scent than anything. His face is somewhat calm, although there’s a guarded edge to it. He’s got Stiles’s hat pulled low over his ears, and his posture is tired, but he looks okay.

But Scott knows better, all of the pack knows better. Even John and Chris knows better, and when Stiles moves in to give his dad a one-armed hug, Scott hears the sheriff mutter, “You okay for now?”

It’s not directed at Stiles, and Derek looks slightly surprised for a second before giving a tiny shrug. Stiles mutters back, “If Holt gets too annoying I’m kicking him in the balls.”

Derek’s lips twitch. Scott fakes a sneeze to cover his laugh. Isaac yawns to cover his own. John doesn’t bother. He lets out a real laugh, and claps Stiles on the shoulder.

“Derek!” Parrish looks actually relieved, and Scott can hear how genuine it is. Derek gives him a nod, but it’s not an unfriendly one, and Scott remembers John saying something about his officers knowing who Derek is. He’d believed it, but it’s one thing to hear and another to see it.

Cordova offers a smile to Derek, to which Derek nods as well. Neither of them move any closer, and Scott’s grateful.

Holt’s not moving closer, but he’s not exactly greeting Derek either. He’s looking Derek up and down, at the hand that’s still holding Stiles’s, at the pajama pants he’s still wearing, and his face is carefully neutral.

Scott doesn’t like him. His instincts are telling him this guy is not good news, and the way he’s looking at Derek is backing them up. Derek’s pointedly not looking at him, but Stiles is openly glaring at him, and Scott wonders if he remembers his own advice about _not pissing people off_.

Except John is also glaring at Holt, and Scott figures it’s safe for the two of them to do so, considering there’s no chance of either of them flashing red or yellow eyes at him, which is why he directs his gaze towards Isaac. Isaac’s right next to the door, and his lips are in a tight line. He’s looking at the opposite wall, and Scott feels his panic, somewhat subdued but still there, and wants to kick himself for forgetting about Isaac’s claustrophobia. It’s not a big room, and they’re all running low on energy and high on adrenaline.

He turns to Allison and stares at her until she looks at him, while John takes his gaze off of Holt and turns to Parrish and Stiles continues to stare Holt down. He gestures at Isaac, and Allison looks at him before her eyes widen. He gives her a pleading look and she nods.

“Hey, Isaac,” she says. “Wanna go to the vending machines with me?”

The look Isaac gives her is one filled with relief. “Sure,” he says.

“While you’re out there, find my mom,” Scott says. “Ask her for the keys to the car. I’ll pick her up later if she needs it.”

“Why do you need the car?” Chris asks curiously.

“Stiles isn’t allowed to drive,” Scott says, looking at his best friend, who is very clearly making Holt uncomfortable. “He’s unmedicated.”

Stiles doesn’t even look at him, but he does say, “ _One. Time_.”

Scott smirks, because he’s been through this with Stiles numerous times and though he knows it pisses Stiles off, it’s a good thing to use to distract him.

Except when he’s staring down some asshole deputy who looks to be on the verge of harassing his boyfriend, apparently. Scott’s not inclined to make him stop, so he drops the whole subject.

Isaac and Allison leave the room, and John turns to look at Scott. “Unmedicated?”

“It was a long night and I was hoping to take a nap,” Stiles answers before Scott has a chance to. “Especially because I have to present my science project with Lydia tomorrow, and if I miss that you’ll never find the body.”

Derek flinches at that, hard enough to make Stiles turn away from Holt, whose unnerved look disappears. Scott fakes a yawn to disguise his smirk, and John turns his attention to the ceiling. Chris is shaking his head.

“So,” Scott says, because Derek’s looking like he’s going to run again and Scott’s starting to get antsy, too. “Can we leave?”

“Well,” it’s Parrish who speaks first, and he looks somewhat wary. “We need to talk to Derek. If he’s up for it.”

Scott looks at Stiles, whose looking back at him. He sees the reluctance on Stiles’s face and nods in agreement. They’re not going to force Derek to do anything he doesn’t want to, and it doesn’t seem like the officers are going to make him do anything, either. Scott leans his head back against the wall, trying to figure out how the hell they’re supposed to deal with this.

It’s an uncomfortably long silence, and when Scott looks back down to see what’s going on, he sees Derek’s hunched in on himself, and Stiles and his father are looking at each other, clearly having some sort of silent conversation. Chris has taken over Stiles’s duty of staring down Holt, although his facial expression is more perplexed than confrontational. Holt is staring at the ground. Parrish and Cordova are looking at each other, clearly not in any hurry.

Finally, Cordova clears his throat and says, “We don’t have to do it here, if you would feel more comfortable.”

Derek doesn’t look like anything is going to make him feel more comfortable, and Scott really wishes he were telepathic, because there’s _something_ going on in both of the Stilinski’s heads, but he really doesn’t know what.

“I’m going to go find Allison,” Chris says somewhat awkwardly, and leaves the room. Derek stumbles backwards into the chair Chris had been sitting in, and pulls Stiles backwards with him. Stiles lets himself be pulled, but doesn’t look away from his dad, and Scott rubs his forehead.

Finally, Stiles and his dad seem to come to some sort of agreement, although Stiles doesn’t look happy about it. John looks at the officers, nodding. Stiles looks at Scott, and Scott doesn’t have to hear Stiles say anything before he knows what’s about to come.

“Derek,” Stiles says, looking at him. “Only if you’re okay with it.”

Derek looks somewhat sick, but there’s something like determination in there, too. He meets Scott’s eyes, and though he doesn’t look steady at _all,_ he’s apparently decided he’s going to do this whether Scott says yes or no.

“If it’ll help,” he says quietly, and Scott’s not reassured. Because that’s the longest sentence Derek has said since he showed up on the Stilinski’s porch, and his voice sounds like shit, and Stiles is throwing an annoyed look at his dad.

“You’ll have to leave,” Cordova sounds like he doesn’t want to make them. Scott likes him just a little bit more.

“Can --,” Derek cuts himself off, then clears his throat. “Can Sheriff Stilinski stay?”

Stiles and Scott turn in unison to John, who is looking at Parrish and Cordova. They all seem to have unanimously decided to ignore Holt, which is just fine with Scott. Parrish looks at Derek, then at Cordova, and then nods.

“He can stay,” Parrish says. “We want to make sure you feel safe.”

“We’ll be right outside,” Stiles promises Derek. Derek nods and very reluctantly lets go of Stiles’s hand. Stiles hesitates, then takes off his jacket and hands to Derek before following Scott out of the room. Isaac and Allison are sitting on the floor outside the room. Chris is in a chair a little further away, still in earshot, but nodding off.

“Good thinking,” Scott says after the doors shut. Stiles still doesn’t look happy.

“If Holt provokes him he’ll have to get my bat removed surgically from how far I shoved it up his ass,” he says, very grumpily. Scott doesn’t doubt it.

“Whatever happened to ‘don’t piss anyone off?’” Allison asks mildly as they scoot to the side to let Stiles and Scott sit closer to the door.

“They all know me,” Stiles says. “Doesn’t matter if I piss them off one way or the other. I won’t change their opinion of me.”

Scott snorts. “So you were giving us advice then?”

“Well, yeah,” Stiles says. “I’ve known Cordova for _years_. Parrish is a good friend. And Holt’s never liked me. Doesn’t matter what I right here, they’re still gonna think of me as the sheriff’s annoying and obnoxious son. And even if I _wasn’t_ that annoying and obnoxious, which I totally am, I’d let them keep thinking it.”

“You were making Holt uncomfortable,” Scott says, trying not to grin.

“He was making Derek uncomfortable,” Stiles does not seem to be in a joking mood. Scott sighs and starts watching Stiles closely. He’s starting to fidget, and Scott is really regretting not making Stiles take his Adderall now. It won’t be long before Stiles is up and pacing, and Scott knows from experience that his mind will be going faster than should be possible, thinking of all the worst case scenarios. He prepares himself to start talking Stiles down from them, as he always does, and checks on Derek, fighting off a wave of sudden exhaustion.

It’s been a _very_ long day.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to give a warning on this chapter: Derek has a panic attack, and it's from his POV. I don't know if it'll trigger anyone, but I felt it I should warn you all first, just in case. Also, this panic attack is loosely based off of what happens to me, but I assume they're different for everyone.
> 
> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/), yo, I'm always open to hear anything you have to say about Teen Wolf or other things!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

Derek really doesn’t want Stiles and Scott to leave the room. He really, really, really doesn’t want them to. But there’s information the police need, and there’s a possibility Scott could take the fall for everything that’s happened, and if Derek can help, he’s going to. Or he’s going to try. He knows he’s falling back into the silence he’d been consumed by after the fire. He _knows_ he’s going back to that place, and it’s bringing up horrible memories, and he doesn’t have Laura to pull him out of it this time.

But he _does_ have the pack, and he has Stiles, and he’s _not_ going to shut down. He’s not. He has a _job_ and a _boyfriend_ and _friends_ and _pack_ and _Cora_. He has things and people to hold onto now, and he’s not letting go.

Sheriff Stilinski’s hand touches his arm and he jumps. He takes a second to put the world back where it’s supposed to be and is glad his eyes were already closed in case the wolf shone through, although he doesn’t remember closing them. He takes a deep breath to steady himself, and opens his eyes, looking at the men.

“There’s no rush,” Parrish says, and Derek takes another deep breath. He can see the officers are being serious, and even Holt’s backed off, although Derek thinks that may have more to do with Mr. Stilinski and Stiles’s combined stares than anything else.

“What do you need to know?” Derek ignores the way his voice shakes. He can do this. He’s going to do this. And his emotions are going to listen to him, because he doesn’t have time for this.

“We need you to tell us the whole story, everything you can remember,” Parrish says. “Even if you don’t think it’s important. Take your time.”

Derek takes another deep breath. He’s starting to feel light-headed, like he’s not getting enough air. It’s annoying and distracting, so he makes himself ignore it, too. He makes his mind go back to that night, and he starts talking, because the faster he gets this over with, the faster he can go back to not talking, and the faster he can let Stiles deal with other people.

“I was with Stiles and his friends at a dinner at Lydia Martin’s house.”

Since he and Stiles had started dating, that was the cover story for the pack. He knew that his age was a problem should anything like this happen, so Stiles had said that if anything happened, he should just say Stiles had dragged him along to hang out with his friends. He’s glad Stiles thought about this a long time ago, because he’s pretty sure if he’d had to come up with something right now, he’d come up empty.

“Stiles was talking to Lydia about their science project, and I was hanging back because I wanted to make plans with Stiles for the next day.”

And, oh, God, he’d totally missed a date. For some reason, this pushes him closer to the edge, and he has to stop again. He brings Stiles’s jacket up to his face and uses it to cover it for a few seconds, just breathing in Stiles’s scent. It’s comforting, and he can scent himself, Scott, Isaac, Lydia, Allison, Danny, Mr. Stilinski, and Melissa on it, too, and even Chris’s scent is welcoming right now. Chris smells absolutely nothing like his sister or his father. He doesn’t know why that’s a comforting thought, but it is, and he’s able to raise his head again after a few moments.

He clears his throat. “So Stiles and I made plans, and then Stiles left in his Jeep.”

“What time was this?” Cordova asks.

Derek thinks about it, then shakes his head. “I don’t -- I can’t remember.”

“Lydia and Stiles both agreed it was around 8:45,” Mr. Stilinski volunteers. Derek feels relief that he doesn’t have to answer that question. It’s alarming that he can’t remember what time it was when he left Lydia. Time hasn’t meant much since that dinner. Even when he’d been curled up in Stiles’s lap, he hadn’t really noticed it passing. He only knows what day it is because Stiles had mentioned it earlier.

“So what happened after that?” Parrish asks. Derek takes another deep breath. He’s still light-headed, and his heart is starting to pound. He’s pretty sure he’s having another panic attack, but he doesn’t want to have to go through this again, so he starts talking again.

“Some men were across the street,” he says. “And they came closer and I don’t really remember what happened after that. I think I went unconscious? I don’t know how long I was out. But when I woke up, I was in a room I’ve never seen before. I was...chained up,” he can still feel the chain around his throat, choking him, stopping him from being able to breathe correctly, stopping him from calling his Alpha, calling his pack, making him short of breath, kind of like he is _now, oh god he can’t breathe he can’t catch his breath his chest hurts everything hurts he doesn’t know what’s happening he can’t make anything out_

It’s suddenly dark for a second and everything smells like Stiles. He freezes, the world being thrown sharply into focus, and he takes a deep breath. What comes out when he tries to let it out is a harsh sob, and once that one is let out, others follow, and he buries his face in Stiles’s jacket, unable to hold any of it back. He doesn’t know what’s going on around him, doesn’t want to know, he’s just tired and doesn’t care anymore.

Someone puts their hand on his shoulder carefully. Derek jerks away from it, unable to hold back his knee jerk reaction and still trying to breathe. A familiar and welcome voice says, “Careful,” and then someone’s hand is running through his hair, and Derek _knows_ that hand, knows it’s Stiles, and he leans into it. He’s safe if Stiles is there, Stiles isn’t going to let anything happen to him. Stiles is good that way.

He’s still fighting to breathe. He feels someone pull his head down onto a shoulder and his nose is filled with Stiles’s scent, strong even through the jacket that’s still on his face. The hand is still in his hair, and it’s comforting and reassuring, but Derek still can’t calm down. He’s too overwhelmed, trying to deal with too much, and he can’t do it, he can’t hold any of it back.

Gradually, he starts to calm down, although it’s not because he’s trying to. He’s exhausted. He’s drained and his head hurts and he still can’t breathe properly, but he starts to hear things around him. Mainly Stiles. He’s humming something. Derek doesn’t know what or why and doesn’t care.

Beyond Stiles, he can hear Scott, quietly talking to his mom. Beyond that, he can hear Mr. Stilinski, presumably talking to the other officers. He hears Allison talking to her dad. None of them are in the room with him and Stiles anymore. Probably to give them privacy. He doesn’t know how long it’s been again, but there’s a knock on the door, and Stiles says quietly, “Go ahead, come in.”

Derek hears the door open and abruptly realizes he’s now seated on the floor, leaning heavily against Stiles. He doesn’t know when that happened. It’s disorienting, but he can’t bring himself to care too much about it.

Scott’s voice speaks up, “Need anything?”

“Get some water,” Stiles says. “I think he’s calming down.”

“Okay,” Scott says, and the door closes again. Derek takes a deep, shuddering breath, and he feels Stiles shift underneath him.

“Derek?” he says quietly, and Derek wonders vaguely how long he’s been trying to get his attention. His throat hurts, and he’s not sure he can talk, so he lifts his hand and tries to find Stiles’s hand. He misses and hits his arm instead, but Stiles doesn’t seem concerned.

“Hey,” Stiles says. “You don’t have to move yet. It’s okay.”

He feels Stiles catch his hand in his. He takes a deep breath again, and for once it actually feels like a deep breath. He does it again and again, finally feeling like he’s getting enough air, and starts to relax.

“So,” Stiles starts to talk, because that’s what Stiles does, and Derek’s glad because he doesn’t want to deal with quiet. “In case you’re wondering, it’s only been about a half an hour. Parrish and Cordova are in charge of the investigation. They’re not going to pressure you into giving a statement if you don’t want to. Scott almost wolfed out because Holt was being a dick, but Allison handled it. She can be scary without weapons, man, I could hear her in here. Melissa’s made sure everyone knows that this room is off-limits for a while. Isaac’s asleep just outside the door, he’s still drained. My dad’s telling Parrish and Cordova everything he knows. Lydia’s been texting Scott every five minutes for the past half hour. Danny’s texting, too, but he’s not as insistent. We’re going to invite him to the pack, by the way.”

“Scott’s been checking in on us about as frequently as Lydia’s been texting him, maybe more. Melissa’s checked in, too, as has my dad. Chris did once, too, because Melissa and my dad were talking Scott down from his angry Alpha mode. Oh, and Cora’s been calling, too. Apparently we all forgot to tell her we found you this morning. By the way, Isaac totally has the hots for your sister. Not relevant, but it _is_ interesting.”

“Scott’s going to drive me, you, and my dad home once you’re ready to go. He’s probably going to crash at our house for a while. You’re welcome to, too. Lydia and Danny will probably be over. I probably won’t be awake. I don’t know how the hell they’re still awake. I don’t know how any of us are awake. Well, Isaac’s not awake. Whatever. Oh, and that reminds me, too, my dad totally approved you sleeping in my room. Like, actually sleeping, I’m too tired for anything else and besides, I’m still seventeen.”

Derek’s content to just let Stiles continue talking and fall asleep right there, but he’s fairly certain that he’s not supposed to that. Although he thinks Stiles would probably just curl right up with him and fall asleep right there on the waiting room floor. He’s not sure anyone else would appreciate that.

He tries to push himself up to sit on his own and just succeeds in falling back on Stiles.

“Whoa,” Stiles says. “Slow down. Take it slow, okay? There’s no rush, no one’s hurt, no one’s upset. Take the jacket off your face, first.”

Derek summons up the energy to make an annoyed noise. He doesn’t want to take it slow. He wants to be either up on his feet and moving around or asleep. He’s tired and sore and he has a headache.

“Is it okay if I take the jacket off your face?” Stiles asks. Derek nods and squeezes Stiles’s hand.

The jacket moves off his face, and Derek immediately squints in the light. Once his eyes adjust, he looks up and sees Stiles, looking down at him with worried brown eyes.

There’s a knock on the door just then, and Stiles says, “Come in.”

The door opens and Derek blinks in that direction to see Scott walking in. He looks at them with something like relief on his face and says, “I got Derek water and you some caffeine.”

“Oh, thank God,” Stiles says, holding his hand out. Derek looks up at Stiles, confused for a second, until he remembers that Stiles hadn’t taken his Adderall earlier. Scott passes two bottles to Stiles, then straightens back up, glancing around like he doesn’t know what to do.

“If you guys need anything, I’ll be right outside,” he says, then backs out the door.

“He’s so cute when he’s trying,” Stiles says. Derek hears Scott make an annoyed noise, and feels the urge to laugh uncontrollably. He’s not able to fight it back and smothers the noise by pressing his face into Stiles’s chest. He can’t stop the laughter, though nothing is funny, and he’s laughing so hard he’s shaking both him and Stiles.

Stiles doesn’t even question him, just holds him until he’s got it out of his system. It takes him several minutes to calm down again. Derek’s again tempted just to stay in the position he’s in, but he’s already completely exhausted, as is everyone else, and none of them particularly like the hospital. So he forces his body to listen and pushes himself into a seated position, no longer leaning on Stiles.

His head is _pounding_ and he winces, bringing one of his hands to his eyes to cover them again.

“Here,” Stiles says, and a bottle is pushed into his other hand. Derek takes his hand off his eyes and looks down at it before opening it and taking a drink. The water is cool and feels good on his throat.

“Thanks,” he rasps. His voice sounds awful and it makes him wince. Stiles nods. There’s a moment of quiet before Stiles clears his throat.

“Wanna go?” he asks.

Derek nods as emphatically as he can manage at the moment, and Stiles actually smiles on him. Then he stands and offers his hands down to Derek to help him up. Derek grabs his hands and let Stiles pull him to his feet, where he sways for a second before he regains his footing. The world is a little off-center, but he can manage. Stiles grabs his hand and gently pulls him towards the door. Derek lets out a breath and lets himself be led out into the hallway.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are so awesome okay, seriously. Thank you so much for reading my story, and all your feedback. You guys have no idea what it means to me.
> 
> This chapter is somewhat more light-hearted. So, that's good.
> 
> Come to my [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)! I like people!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

To be honest, Stiles thought Derek was doing better than expected. He knew from personal experience that it’s not easy to calm down from a panic attack, and especially not one as intense as Derek had had. Stiles had only had one of those once before, directly after his mom had died, and he’d labeled that level of panic attack ‘END OF THE WORLD.’ That was what it had felt like at the time, and though he’s had several panic attacks since then, he’s never hit that level again.

So Stiles had expected to stay in that room for a couple more hours, and he’d been prepared for it. He’s not totally surprised that his preparation was apparently unnecessary, but he is a little worried. And he’s entitled to be. Derek had _not_ been okay at all when Stiles’s dad had opened the door and quietly asked Stiles to come in. Scott had already been up on his feet, trying to tell him what was going on, his eyes flashing from red to brown (and Scott has got to get that under control, he can’t just flash his eyes every time something upsets him, Stiles doesn’t know what that’s about but it’s not helpful).

He’d been glad when the other officers had left the room. He’d had no idea if Derek even knew what was going on around him, but he didn’t need people staring at him, and even Stiles’s dad had left out of respect for Derek. Stiles had pulled Derek to the floor to make it easier to comfort him and just held him while Derek had a much-needed breakdown.

And now Derek looks absolutely wiped out, and is totally using Stiles as a shield to hide behind. Stiles doesn’t really mind. If Derek doesn’t want to talk to anyone, he doesn’t have to. Stiles will do it for him. And if anyone tries to fight it, Stiles will probably need to flee the country to avoid the government, because he will be merciless.

Unsurprisingly, Scott is right outside the door, and nearly trips himself jumping to his feet. He catches himself and gives Stiles a dirty look when he snorts. Stiles just makes a face back at him and continues to pull Derek behind him. He’s pulling slowly enough that Derek can resist if he wants to without hurting either of them, but Derek’s not making any moves to fight him. He doesn’t seem steady, but Stiles doesn’t expect him to be.

“Hey,” Scott says. “Ready to go?”

Stiles nods. Scott nods back and gestures down the hall. “Everyone’s kind of just around now. Parrish, Cordova, and Holt left. They got a call or something. Isaac was feeling a bit antsy and Mr. Argent didn’t really seem to be in a good mood, so they went to go wait by the cars. Allison went with. Your dad went to the front desk with my mom.”

“Dude,” Stiles says. “They are _flirting_ so hard.”

Scott looks at a loss how to feel. “I know. No offense, your dad’s awesome, but…”

“It’s weird,” Stiles finishes for him. Scott grimaces and nods.

“Yeah,” he says.

“Well, think about it this way,” Stiles says. “We’re already brothers. That’ll just make it official.”

Scott just gives him a look that causes Derek to make an amused noise. Stiles grins.

“What about Isaac and Cora?” he says.

“Oh, Jesus,” Scott groans. “Do you have any idea how much I hear about her at my house?”

“We’re all going to end up related,” Stiles says in a singsong voice.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Scott says, but now he’s grinning, too, and even Derek’s relaxed a bit more. Stiles feels accomplished.

“Let’s get out of here,” Stiles says. “I need sleep. Or Adderall. Either or.”

“ _Sleep_ ,” Scott says, giving him what Stiles has named his ‘Pack Mom’ look.

“ _Bite_ me,” Stiles says cheerfully. Derek makes another amused noise as Scott flips him off. Stiles mentally celebrates as they head down the hallway to the front desk.

Stiles’s dad is standing there talking to Melissa, both of them looking somewhat relaxed. Stiles had mostly been joking, but even without the werewolf senses, he can tell there’s _something_ there. And while no one will ever replace his mom in his mind, life, or heart, Melissa is someone he would trust his dad with, especially if she made him happy.

That’s all pushed to the back of his mind when his dad turns and sees them, and waves. Stiles waves back, even though they’re less than twenty feet away from him. He’d been pretty freaked out earlier when Melissa had called him and he hadn’t quite let go of that feeling yet. He really wanted to wrap his dad in a giant hug, but his dad’s arm is in a sling and his shoulder is sensitive. He’s not allowed to do that, not for a while.

“Ready to go?” his dad asks.

“Yeah,” Stiles says, feeling Derek lean against him as he stops. He has absolutely no idea what they’re going to do for the next day, because Stiles absolutely cannot miss school, or Lydia will have to present their science project on her own, and that’s not fair at all, _especially_ since Stiles has been pretty MIA all week. Maybe his dad can stay home with Derek, or Isaac can. Maybe Melissa. Maybe Derek can come to the school and be a creeper all day.

Scott goes around the counter and hugs his mom. She hands him the keys to the car, reminding him of what time he has to come get her, and they all head outside.

Isaac apparently hears them coming, because he’s already walking towards the door when they get outside. Allison and Chris are following him, albeit much slower. They meet up halfway.

“Okay,” Scott says. “We all need sleep.”

“Amen,” Stiles says. Scott ignores him.

“Derek and I are going to go with Stiles and his dad,” Scott says, and he’s addressing Allison and Isaac only. Stiles often wonders what would happen if Scott used his Alpha tone on Chris or Stiles’s dad. He thinks it wouldn’t go over well, but he’s curious.

“Okay,” Allison says. “I’m going to go home for a while.”

Scott nods. “We can meet up later.”

“Scott, we don’t have room for Isaac,” Stiles says. In truth, they probably do, but not without Isaac’s claustrophobia kicking in. Stiles’s dad won’t be able to sit anywhere but the front seat due to his arm, and Derek’s going to want to be next to Stiles, who is starting to feel crowded. He’s not usually claustrophobic, but he has to have room to move and he doesn’t think at the moment he’ll be able to really handle being pushed up against too many people.

“We can give Isaac a ride,” Allison says, glancing sideways at her dad, who just nods, looking far too tired to argue. “To Stiles’s house?”

“I think until this is all over it’s probably going to be where we meet up?” Scott gives Stiles’s dad an apologetic look. To his credit, his dad doesn’t look upset. If anything, he looks glad, and Stiles is once again hit with the urge to hug his dad.

“Any parting words, O Alpha One?” Stiles says to Scott. He gives Stiles a flat look, but then does turn to the others.

“Don’t turn your phones off,” he says, mostly to the pack. “And we’re still on the whole ‘check in every hour’ thing, at least until we’re sure we’re safe. I’m going to invite Danny to the pack later today, so he and Lydia will probably be at the Stilinski’s with the rest of us,” again, he gives Stiles’s dad an apologetic look.

“Scott,” Stiles’s dad says. “You don’t need to apologize. If I had a problem with it, I would have said so already.”

“Yeah, well,” Scott trails off before muttering, “I still feel bad.”

“Scott, my friend, that’s because you’re a ridiculously good guy,” Stiles throws his free arm over Scott’s shoulder. “And I am _really_ hungry. And tired. And unmedicated. Can we go home now?”

“Please,” Derek mutters from where he’s edging towards Scott’s mom’s car. He’s made it far enough that he’s starting to pull Stiles with him, which means Scott stumbles with him, and Stiles can’t help but start laughing.

“Sounds like a plan,” Stiles’s dad says, rolling his eyes at them.

“Bye!” Stiles calls over his shoulder to Allison, Isaac, and Chris as Derek starts to pull him in earnest. Scott nearly falls on his face as Stiles lets go of him abruptly, and makes an annoyed noise as he follows them to the car.

“Okay,” Stiles says as soon as Scott’s pulling out of the parking lot. “So what cover story did you and Mr. Argent give them for the two of you being at that building with a bunch of dead bodies?”

Stiles’s dad gives him a look before sighing. He opens his mouth and says, “I said that we were there because Chris was looking for his father. He said he knew that his father was friends with the owner of that particular building, and when he called them, they didn’t answer. He knew me because you and Allison are friends, and knew that I was off, so he asked for me to come along off the record to try to intimidate his father to go back to the facility. We came in to see the bodies and were about to leave when a grenade was set off and someone started shooting at us.”

“Someone was _shooting_ at you guys?” Stiles can’t help it.

“Yes,” his dad doesn’t miss a beat. “And Chris had a weapon and we were both fine. The shots weren’t to actually hit us, just to keep us where we were until they were gone.”

“So wait,” Scott suddenly says. “There’s one on the loose?”

Derek makes an involuntary distressed noise. Stiles squeezes his hand.

“Yes,” Stiles’s dad sounds exhausted. “And right now, with no descriptions and no suspects, there’s not much they can do but process the scene and the bodies.”

“So this guy is going to get away?” Stiles has never, ever, ever heard Scott that angry before, and he’s known him for as long as he can remember. His eyes are red, Stiles can see it in the mirror, and now would be the absolute worst time for Scott to lose control.

“Hey,” he leans forward and taps Scott twice on the side of his head, catching Scott’s attention onto him.  “Get a grip. You have _got_ to reign that in.”

“Believe me, I’m trying,” Scott says through clenched teeth. Stiles’s dad is looking at them with some sort of concern.

“I thought you had that taken care of,” he says.

“Yeah, I _had_ an anchor,” Scott says, and Stiles hits his forehead on the back of Scott’s seat.

“You have seriously got to be kidding me,” he says. “ _Scott_ , I swear to God.”

“Shut up,” Scott says, and Stiles can hear in his tone that it is time for him to back off, so he sits back. Stiles’s dad gives him a questioning look, but Stiles shakes his head. Scott’s anchor is still _Allison_ , Stiles is going to _kill_ Scott. He needs a new anchor, because whether the two of them are going out or not, Allison is apparently not enough to hold back the Alpha in Scott. He needs a stronger anchor, and right now, when they’re all on edge, feeling threatened and exhausted, is past the time he should have had one.

“It hasn’t been a problem until now,” Scott finally says. “I don’t know _why_ it’s suddenly so much more intense. Derek and I worked on it, I could control it, and now suddenly it’s like the wolf is controlling me instead of the other way around like it’s supposed to be.”

Derek clears his throat, and says quietly, “You’re more open to the wolf now. You need a stronger anchor. And I was wrong, don’t go with your anger. Anger’s too temporary.”

Stiles stares at him, and despite the fact that he’s pretty sure he shouldn’t be asking, opens his mouth. “So if anger isn’t your anchor now, what is?”

“The pack,” Derek doesn’t seem to mind him asking. “More specifically, the pack bond. The feeling of family.”

 _Oh_. Yeah, Stiles can see that. He doesn’t say anything, just squeezes Derek’s hand again, and turns his attention back to the front, where his dad is looking at Scott with narrowed eyes. Scott seems to be ignoring him, and pulls up outside of the Stilinski house. Stiles lets out a breath and climbs out. The Argents pull up behind them and Isaac climbs out. Stiles waves to Allison as she drives away.

“Wait,” Derek says, his tone still too quiet for Stiles’s liking. “Where’s my car? And my phone? And my wallet?”

He’s looking at Scott, who points at Stiles. Derek turns his attention toward him.

“We couldn’t get near your car,” Stiles says. “There was a lot of wolfsbane near it. So we called the police, and they kind of had to impound it? It was cleaned, I know, and they didn’t hurt it, I promise. I don’t know where your wallet and phone are.”

Derek doesn’t exactly look happy about this, but he also doesn’t seem too angry, so Stiles silently sighs in relief as he opens the front door.

“Your phone and wallet are in evidence,” Stiles’s dad says. “You might have to get new ones. They were absolutely covered in wolfsbane, and they’re trying to clean them, but, well.”

 _Now_ Derek looks upset, though Stiles can’t figure out why. Until he remembers that Derek has a picture of his family in his wallet, and all of the pictures on the phone. He grimaces.

There’s not much discussion as they all get in the house. They all eat some sandwiches, and then Stiles leads the pack members into his room. He turns the lamp on, but turns the light off, and pulls Derek onto his bed, where he stretches out and immediately falls asleep, one hand still holding Derek’s.

He wakes up several times, hearing people move around him and occasionally talking, but no one says anything directly to him, and so he doesn’t bother to focus on it. Instead he just goes back to sleep, still feeling Derek right next to him and not particularly caring about anything else.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okey-dokey, so for this chapter you all might have to suspend your disbelief a bit? I don't really know how police investigations work, and I tried to look it up, but it might not be accurate. I apologize if it isn't.
> 
> I'm too lazy to link my tumblr this chapter, but you guys are still awesome.
> 
> Beta's by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!
> 
>  
> 
> EDIT: Oh, my god, I am so sorry, I just realized that I accidentally based a scene in this chapter off of another fic I read called [Play It Again](http://archiveofourown.org/works/862320/chapters/1652969) by metisket (involving Stiles, Lydia, and a computer). I did not realize this immediately, it was not done on purpose, but I still want to give credit where it's due, and I want to apologize for not realizing it sooner. Also you should totally go read Play It Again because it's one of my favorite fics ever.

It’s dark when Stiles blinks back to awareness. His TV is on, playing what sounds like _Star Trek_ , and he hears someone muttering to someone else. His brain does _not_ want to cooperate, and Derek’s still curled up next to him, presumably asleep, so he stares at the ceiling until someone says, “Hey, Stiles is awake.”

“No, I’m not,” he says without missing a beat. He recognizes the voice as Lydia’s immediately, and lifts his head to see her sitting at his desk. His computer is on, and he sees his playlist is open.

“What are you doing?” he has a sinking feeling.

“Gathering blackmail material,” she gives him a dazzling smile. Stiles just rolls his eyes and turns to look around the rest of his room.

Allison is curled up on the floor under his window, fast asleep. Stiles doesn’t know when she got there, but someone put one of the extra blankets over her, and she seems to be pretty deeply asleep. Isaac’s asleep on the end of Stiles’s bed, now wearing one of Stiles’s sweatshirts and apparently unconcerned that he could have been kicked off the bed. On the floor in the middle of the room, Danny is sitting with a math book open on his lap, and Stiles blinks at him, because he can feel Danny, which means…

“Aw, I missed Scott inviting Danny to the pack?” he asks.

“Scott told us not to wake you or Derek,” Danny doesn’t even look up.

Which is fair, even if it does annoy Stiles. “Okay. Welcome to the pack, then.”

“Thanks,” Danny looks up and gives him a smile. Then he goes back to his math.

Derek is still asleep, curled up next to Stiles, looking dead to the world, which leaves only one pack member unaccounted for.

“And where is Scott?” he asks.

“He had to pick up his mom,” Lydia says. She turns with a judging expression on her face. “What is _up_ with all of this _Phantom of the Opera_ , Stiles?”

Stiles stares at her for a second, because that was _his_ business. That album was on there because _Phantom of the Opera_ had always been his mom’s favorite musical. He’d watched the movie hundreds of times with her while she was in the hospital, and he listened to that album when he missed her. He considers dismissing her before deciding to tell the truth and says, “My mom’s favorite musical.”

Lydia blinks at him, clearly not expecting that. She looks guilty “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Stiles says, forgiving her immediately. “Why did no one go with Scott?”

“Why would one of us need to go with Scott?” Lydia asks. Stiles is immediately annoyed until he remembers that Scott and Derek are the only other ones who were a part of that conversation, and clearly Scott hadn’t told anyone. Stiles is going to _kill_ Scott.

“Because there’s one guy still on the loose,” he says. Lydia’s face pales and Danny looks up, his eyes wide.

“He didn’t tell us,” he says.

“No, he didn’t, because Scott is a dumbass, and if he gets hurt I will murder him,” Stiles pulls out his phone and dials the number.

“Hello?” Scott answers immediately, and Stiles lets out a sigh of relief.

“I am going to _murder_ you,” he says.

“Good morning to you, too,” Scott says. Stiles does not appreciate his flippant tone, at all.

“Dude,” Stiles says. “There’s still a guy on the loose. Why the hell are you going _anywhere_ alone? You do realize you’re probably his target, right?”

“Why are you so convinced of that?” Scott asks, his tone clearly annoyed.

“Why are you not convinced of it?” Stiles demands. “Scott, you pissed Gerard off. _Gerard_. The _Argent_. Kate’s father. You sentenced him to _months_ of suffering in a facility. You ruined his plan and outsmarted him. Gerard already tried to kill you several times at that building. Why do you think he would just leave you alone afterwards? Do you remember the part where everyone we deal with always ends up being a problem even long after they’re dead? Can you at least humor me?”

There’s silence for a few moments on the other line before Scott lets out a sigh and says, “Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have brought someone with me. I just…”

“Yeah, I know,” Stiles says. And he does. Scott’s not as paranoid as Stiles, his mind doesn’t always jump to the worst possible conclusions, and though Scott’s usually pretty good about talking him down off of those ledges and working through his logic, he doesn’t think the way Stiles does. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing, because it means at least one of them is optimistic, and a good person. It’s a bad thing because Scott can be stupidly trusting, and he sometimes has a hard time seeing the potential for bad in other people.

That’s what he has Stiles for. To be the paranoid asshole. It’s his specialty.

This is also _worse_ , because it means someone is attacking the pack once again to get to Scott, and Scott has a guilt complex the size of Africa. He stretches himself too thin trying to take care and protect everyone, and if someone’s trying to make it so he can’t, he’s probably trying to act like he can anyway. So he’s assuming Stiles is wrong, and going about his usual business.

Which is infuriating and also very Scott and Stiles is going to punch something.

“Where are you, then?” Stiles asks.

“At home, with my mom,” Scott says. “I was going to come back, but, Stiles, Gerard already threatened my mom once. He came in my house with the kanima.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Stiles rubs his forehead.

“Actually,” Scott says suddenly. “Gerard, at the lacrosse game? He made a list and pretty much everyone was on it. My mom, your dad, Lydia. I guess he didn’t ever actually say your name, but it was pretty freaking clear he meant you. And he always had it out for Derek.”

“And at the warehouse, he threatened Allison,” Stiles rubs his forehead.

“The only one of us he didn’t actually threaten was Danny,” Scott says. “Stiles, if he wanted me dead he would have just killed me.”

“But if he wanted to punish you, he would hurt the others around you,” Stiles finishes, and glances around the bedroom. “Fuck, man, this sucks.”

“This guy,” Scott says slowly. “If he hasn’t just run for it, he’s going to go after one of us.”

“Which one is the problem,” Stiles says. “And we can’t identify him. Derek might know, but he might not, and my dad’s not on the case anymore, so he can’t get us info.”

“We’re really screwed,” Scott says. “We need a plan.”

“Try not to die?” Stiles suggests.

“You’re hilarious,” Scott says dryly.

“I try.”

“Wait,” Scott says, and he sounds distracted. There’s shuffling and Stiles can hear Scott swear quietly before he comes back on the line. “Stiles, there’s a police car with its lights on outside my house. It’s Parrish and Cordova.”

“Shit,” Stiles says, and Lydia and Danny, who have both been tracking his half of the conversation off and on, both look up at his tone. “I was right, wasn’t I? What are they saying?”

“They’re not saying anything,” Scott says. “They’re walking to my door. I hate when you’re right.”

“Me, too,” Stiles says, shifting in his bed slightly. His movement rouses Derek, who opens one eye, looking very groggy.

“They’re knocking on my door,” Scott says. “I thought you said I wasn’t going to be arrested?”

“Well, you _shouldn’t_ be,” Stiles says, looking at Lydia and gesturing to both Allison and Isaac. Derek opens his other eye and rolls over slightly, looking concerned.

“They’re talking to my mom,” Scott says. “Parrish says -- oh, man, Stiles, they have a witness.”

“The one guy on the loose,” Stiles realizes. Allison and Isaac are both groggy, but they’re up, and Stiles holds a hand up when he sees them open their mouths.

“I’m going to go to jail.”

“Shut up, you’re not going to jail,” Stiles says, and _that_ catches everyone’s attention. “You’re innocent. Go with them, cooperate, and _keep your temper_. They _might_ have grounds to hold you for up to 72 hours, since the investigation is ongoing, but --.”

“72 hours?” Scott exclaims. “I _don’t have time for this_.”

“Make time, Scott, you cannot afford to piss them off,” Stiles says sharply. Everyone else is up, in various states of getting ready to go, except Derek. He’s still on the bed next to Stiles, a guarded look on his face.

“I gotta go,” Scott says, sounding resigned, and he hangs up without waiting for Stiles to respond. Stiles growls at his phone as he drops it to his lap.

“What’s happening?” Allison demands immediately.

“I was right,” Stiles says. “There was one guy still on the loose, and we think he’s come forward in the investigation as a witness. Surprise, surprise, he’s blaming Scott, and Parrish and Cordova probably don’t have the evidence to dismiss the accusation, so they have to take him to the station and questioning him.”

“They can’t hold him without evidence,” Danny says, sounding uncertain.

“Actually, they _can_ ,” Stiles says. “They can hold you up for up to 48 hours without charging you, and sometimes they can stretch it to 72 hours if it’s an ongoing case with evidence still being gathered. They have a witness who may or may not have evidence, and no suspects. My dad’s not on this case, so we can’t get information through him, and Scott’s close enough to eighteen that they could probably try him as an adult. It was the middle of the night, we don’t have an alibi for him because he was actually there when it happened, and if they find his fingerprints anywhere in there, we really are screwed.”

“What is this guy claiming?” Allison asks. “Because they know Gerard was the one who took Derek, don’t they?”

“No, they don’t,” Stiles’s dad says from the door. Everyone jumps and looks at him. “It’s all just circumstantial right now, there’s no actual proof, and if that guy was still there when we were all standing outside, he could have wiped everything down. The tools were clean anyway. What they’ve got is a big mess, a lot of dead bodies, and stories. There’s nothing concrete.”

“So Scott should be fine, right?” Lydia says, sounding a little desperate.

“This witness,” Stiles’s dad says. “He would have been one of Gerard’s friends, right?”

“Probably,” Allison says.

“So there’s a possibility they already had it set up so they had some proof,” Stiles’s dad says.

“Yeah,” Stiles says. “We don’t really know anything.”

“I need to go talk to them,” Derek says, so quietly Stiles almost misses it. He blinks at him for a second.

“What?”

“I need to go talk to them,” he repeats. “Like your dad said, it’s all just circumstantial, and they don’t know anything, because I haven’t said anything yet. They’ve got good guesses, but that’s all they are, and _I_ know what happened. This guy...I probably saw him. I can identify him. That’ll discredit anything he’s brought forward, right?”

“But,” Stiles really doesn’t want to make Derek do it. He saw how badly he’d reacted earlier, and he doesn’t want to make it worse. But at the same time, if they don’t do anything, Scott is probably screwed.

It would help if they knew what was actually going on. All they’ve got is guesses. Educated guesses, but nothing’s confirmed, and Scott’s depending on them.

“If you’re sure,” he finally says.

Derek nods. The rest of the pack starts towards the door and Stiles stares at them before saying, “Whoa, wait.”

Everyone stops and looks at him. He blinks, since he hadn’t actually expected them to listen to him.

“What?” Allison asks, clearly irritated.

“We can’t just storm the station,” he says. “How would we explain that?”

“We’re there to help Scott,” Isaac says.

“Okay, great,” Stiles says. “Except _we’re not police officers_. We’re a bunch of teenagers -- and Derek -- and as far as they know, we _can’t_ help. We’re more likely to get accused of interfering with an investigation. Derek’s the only one with an excuse to be down there, and the rest of us of shouldn’t even know anything about this. We were lucky not to get a bunch of questions earlier.”

“Less luck, more the fact you guys are pretty obvious,” Stiles’s dad says. “They know you, Stiles. They know Derek’s your boyfriend, and Scott’s your best friend, and everyone knows Isaac’s living with Scott, so to be honest, the group of you that showed up wasn’t surprising at all.”

Stiles stares for a few seconds. “Well, good to know. How suspicious do you think they’ll be if I hang out around the station? Since, you know, Derek _and_ Scott.”

“I already told Parrish that I’d like to be kept informed,” his dad says. “He agreed, and asked that I keep an eye on Derek, just in case.”

Derek looks somewhat surprised. Stiles isn’t surprised at all, and says, “So you can get us info?”

“Yes, Stiles, I can get you info,” his dad rolls his eyes.

“Awesome,” Stiles says.

“We’re not just going to leave Scott all alone at the station, though, are we?” Allison asks. “He’s a sitting duck there. Especially if the witness is still there.”

Which is totally true, and Stiles has a headache. Everyone’s looking at him, and he doesn’t know why until he remembers that he’s Scott’s second in command, which means right now he’s in charge.

 _Fuck my life_.

“If I went with Derek to the station, they wouldn’t be suspicious, right?” Stiles asks.

“I’d come with,” his dad says.

“Okay,” Stiles says. “Allison, you have a car, right?”

“Yes,” Allison says.

“Okay, then you and Isaac can come to the station and wait outside,” Stiles says. “Close enough you could hear a yell or a howl. Don’t look suspicious.”

“What about us?” Lydia looks extremely frustrated as she gestures to herself and Danny.

“Get bail ready?” Stiles suggests.

“Very comforting,” Danny mutters.

This does present a problem, though, and Stiles sighs, because Lydia and Danny shouldn’t be shoved aside, and also there’s the possibility that the guy could come after one of them. “Stay with Allison and Isaac in the car.”

“You’re still not medicated,” Allison says as they walk down the stairs to leave.

“We’re all just going to pretend that’s not true, okay?” Stiles asks. He is going to _kill_ Scott.

“What?” Danny asks.

“Stiles isn’t supposed to drive when he’s unmedicated,” Isaac explains to Danny.

“Oh, is that because of that one time when you --.”

“Let’s talk about this at another time!” Stiles loudly cuts Danny off. “Thank you. I am going to drive, because fuck your neurotypical shit, I am _fine_.”

Fortunately, everyone drops it, and he drives his dad and Derek in his Jeep to the station, where he prepares himself for the shitstorm he’s sure is coming.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is where the plot kinda gets fun. I refuse to believe that Parrish is anything but a good officer and an ally to the pack, so there. Also, I am utterly horrible to Derek. I am so sorry.
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale).

John is allowed in the room with Derek again, but Stiles is not. Stiles isn’t thrilled by this, but John reminds him what he’d literally _just_ told the rest of the pack, and Stiles sits in __the closest chair to the room where they’re talking to Derek. John knows Scott’s sitting in the interrogation room, also near where they are, but he’s not worried. Stiles knows what could happen if he starts interfering with Scott’s case, and he’ll want to be close in case Derek starts to panic again.

The room they’re sitting in has windows, and Stiles is sitting directly on the other side of one of them, and Parrish and Cordova, who are pretty smart and observant, settle them so Derek’s facing that window. Derek’s gaze immediately picks out Stiles, and even though it’s just the back of his head, Derek relaxes.

This room also has refreshments, and John hands Derek a banana to eat and a water bottle before getting himself some coffee. He sits down at the good-sized table and looks expectantly at Parrish. Derek follows his example.

“It’s always weird when your boss passes off the lead to you,” Parrish says to Cordova. John rolls his eyes, because Parrish is still somewhat new, but he’s led other investigations before. Cordova’s worked here for years, a couple years longer than John, but he’s never ran for sheriff before. He’s a good officer, but he doesn’t want the authority. John’s pretty sure they’re the best ones to be handling this case, because they’ll be fair and they’re good detectives.

“So, Derek,” Parrish says. “You can start whenever you’re ready.”

Derek looks up and then back at Stiles, who John can see has turned slightly, apparently paying attention to something happening down the hall. Derek’s jaw tightens, and then he launches into the story, recapping what he’s already told them.

Once he gets to the part he stopped at last time, he pauses, takes a deep breath, and starts up again. John can see the determination in Derek’s eyes and glances at Stiles again, who is blatantly looking in the room. As soon as he sees John looking at him, he looks away, but then looks back at Derek again.

“I was chained up,” Derek is saying, and there’s no emotion in his voice. “My arms and legs, and there was one around my neck. The room was dark, and cold, and when I first woke up there were three men in there. One of them was Gerard Argent. He was in a wheelchair, and he came up to me and started to taunt me. He said he had my uncle locked up nearby, and that neither of us were going to get loose until he got what he wanted.”

“What did he want?” Parrish asks, and John wonders what Derek’s going to say, because ‘a way to stop the werewolf bite from killing him’ is probably not going to help the situation.

Luckily, Derek seems to have already thought about this, and he shakes his head. “I don’t know. The Argents and my family have a long history of not getting along. I don’t even know why. Then Gerard’s daughter…”

Derek doesn’t have to finish that sentence, because the entire station knows that story. It’s good, too, because Derek’s gripping the table, and John is fairly certain he could break it if he wanted to. But Derek gets himself under control, and starts again.

“He kept saying that we had something that he wanted, but I don’t know what. When I tried to tell him this, he let the other two men come forward and,” Derek squeezes his eyes shut then, and John hopes he’s not about to have another panic attack, because Stiles is looking in the room and from the looks of it already on the verge of charging in.

It takes a couple minutes, and John exchanges several worried looks with Parrish and Cordova, but Derek calms himself down. He takes a long drink of the water bottle and clears his throat before starting up again.

“They took turns with the tools. I didn’t really know how much time was passing, and they left no marks on me, although I saw my uncle once and there were marks all over him.”

This is true. John doesn’t know how Derek knew Peter hadn’t healed, and doesn’t want to know. He glances over at Stiles, who is staring down the hall with a curious look on his face. It’s an expression John knows, that means something’s going on and Stiles is considering getting involved. He wonders what’s going on. Derek doesn’t seem concerned, but John doesn’t think Derek’s focusing on anything but this interview.

“And then they let me go. I don’t know why. I guess maybe they were hoping I would lead them to whatever they wanted? But I didn’t go back to my apartment. I wasn’t thinking, I didn’t want to be alone. So I went to Stiles. He and his dad took care of me. I don’t really remember walking there, and I don’t remember what really happened when I got there, either. The first thing I really remember is this morning, when Stiles got a call to go to the hospital because,” Derek nods at John.

“Okay,” Parrish says. “Do you know how many men there were?”

Derek narrows his eyes. “Including Gerard, eight.”

“Eight?” Cordova says. “You’re sure?”

Derek nods, absolutely certain, and John feels his stomach sink.

Because there had been five dead bodies, including Gerard, at the office building. Which means three are still on the loose. And they’re all gunning after the pack, after Scott, and Derek, and Stiles.

“Would you be able to identify them?” Unaware of John’s nerves, Parrish leans forward.

“Yes,” Derek says. Then he hesitates. “Maybe. The eighth man -- he never came in the room. I just heard an unfamiliar voice every once and a while. I don’t know if I would recognize him.”

Which means Derek hadn’t picked up his scent, nor his face, which meant he didn’t really know who the eighth one was. John is not liking this at all.

“Okay,” Parrish says. “Thank you, Derek. Sheriff?”

“Yes?” John says.

“I think it would be best to put Derek in protective custody, just in case,” Parrish says. “There are three still on the loose.”

Derek jerks up, eyes wide and suddenly horrified. It catches Stiles’s attention, and he’s looking in the room with worried eyes.

John doesn’t know what to do, honestly. From the point of view that Parrish and Cordova have, it’s a good idea. It makes perfect sense. But from John’s point of view, he doesn’t like it. Because the pack’s already down their Alpha with Scott stuck in an interrogation room. They’ve got a new member in Danny, but Danny’s human and not a hunter. The only ones with fighting skills are Allison and Isaac. And with the witness in the station, Derek’s probably in _more_ danger in the station than outside of it.

But at the same time, it allows them someone to stay and keep an eye out for Scott, and gives Stiles a reason to stay, too, which gives John a reason to stay. It’s also a good place for Derek to stay while Stiles is at school.

“You’re in charge,” he says. Derek glances at him, but doesn’t argue.

“I think your son’s a little eager to check on his boyfriend,” Cordova gestures towards the door. John and Derek turn to see Stiles standing on the other side of it watching them through it. He waves cheerfully.

Derek snorts. John rolls his eyes. “He didn’t want to stay at home. I’ll make sure he stays out of your way.”

Cordova just smiles at him, because Stiles’s antics are well known around the station. After Claudia’s death, John had brought Stiles to the station several times, and he’d gotten into a lot of trouble while there. Cordova knew. He’d been there.

“Well, I think we’re done here,” Parrish says. “Thank you, Derek. John, I take it you can give him the information we usually give?”

“I’ve got it covered,” he nods. Parrish gives him a relieved look, and he and Cordova leave. Stiles immediately comes in and sits down right next to Derek.

“What happened?” he demands.

“I’m in protective custody,” Derek says grumpily.

“Really?” Stiles says, looking thoughtful. “That’s a good idea.”

“What?” Derek blinks at him. “Why?”

“A couple of reasons,” Stiles says. “It means _someone_ is here with Scott. It also makes you less vulnerable, because if you stay in this room, there’s a camera in the hall that’s constantly monitored by the front desk, right?”

“Why do you know that?” John narrows his eyes.

“No reason,” Stiles says hastily. “But, it also means that right now, I can stay, and my dad can stay, and he can get us information on what’s happening. It also means that school tomorrow is going to suck so much.”

“You can’t miss another day,” John says.

“Oh, I can’t miss tomorrow,” Stiles says. “Lydia and I have to present our science project. She will be pissed if I miss. I’d have to buy her new dresses and shoes to match to just to stop getting The Look.”

John snorts. “Speaking from experience?”

“Yup,” Stiles says. “You know what else sucks? The fact that Scott’s unavailable as Alpha right now. You know what that means? That means I’m in charge. I don’t like it.”

“You’re in charge?” John asks, unable to hide his surprise.

“Stiles is Scott’s second,” Derek reminds him. “That means when Scott’s incapacitated, we defer to Stiles.”

_Huh. This pack thing is so much more serious than it seems at first glance._

“Well, good luck with that,” John says. “I’m going to go see what I can find out about Scott.”

“His mom is down the hall,” Stiles says. “They're trying to figure out the whole lawyer thing. Oh, and Holt threw some sort of fit because Melissa told him to, and I quote, ‘Act like a mature adult and a respectable officer.’ To be fair, he was talking loudly about stupid teenagers and their lack of responsibility. Which, okay, sure, some teenagers are irresponsible, but _dude_. Scott has this hero complex. He thinks he’s responsible for _everyone_. The only person he generally neglects is himself.”

John just grins. He gets up and heads out the door, and immediately spots Melissa down the hall. He waves at her and walks closer.

“I hear you’re insulting officers,” he says.

“Only officers insulting my son,” she crosses her arms, looking annoyed. “And what are we doing about this mess?”

“Right now?” John says. “Praying.”

Melissa does not look impressed with his joke. In fact, she looks like she’s about to punch him. John wonders briefly if turning his injured shoulder towards her would be considered cowardly.

“Is there anything we _can_ do?” she asks.

“We’re working on it,” John says. “It’s a big mess. Derek made it through questioning, but now we’ve learned there’s three men on the loose, and one of them Derek might not be able to identify. There’s a witness I don’t know anything about yet. They’re letting me stay informed, so I’m about to go request any and all information they’ll give me. And then I’m going to go brief my teenage son, because apparently if Scott’s unavailable, Stiles is in charge of the pack. And then, if you would like, you can join us in the room Derek and Stiles are in, and we will strategize.”

Melissa raises an eyebrow, as if she can somehow sense his bitterness about the situation, and nods. “I’ll go sit with Stiles and Derek.”

John nods and watches her go. Then he heads back down the hall and to the room Parrish and Cordova both have desks in.

They’re both sitting there. Holt’s in the corner of the room, reading some sort of report, looking irritated. From the looks Cordova keeps throwing him, he’s fairly certain he pissed someone off. He decides not to ask about that and sits in a chair across from Parrish’s desk.

“Here for a briefing?” Parrish asks. John nods.

“Please and thank you,” he says. Parrish grins before letting out a big sigh.

“It’s a big mess,” he says.

 _Bigger than you know_ , John thinks, and he wonders how Scott and the pack would react to the idea of telling other officers. Especially Parrish, who John is pretty sure is going to figure it out on his own anyway, and Cordova, who John trusts more than anyone else he works with. It’s a tempting idea, and he puts it in the back of his mind to ask Stiles later.

“We’ve got two stories,” Parrish says. “I’m more tempted to believe Derek’s than Henry’s.”

“Henry?” John asks, not recognizing the name. He’s pretty sure that’s the witness, but he doesn’t know the name, and he’s not supposed to know about the witness yet. He’s not even supposed to know about _Scott_ yet. This is going to get confusing, he just knows it.

“Henry Dubois,” Parrish says. “He works at the office building where everything happened. Says he was working late last night and came down, hearing shouts and an explosion, and saw a kid with a knife attacking an old man in a wheelchair, that’s Gerard. Another man -- Peter Hale from what he said -- tried to make a run for it and ended up getting shot in the chaos. The kid used Peter as a shield and killed the three men before making it to Gerard, and he killed Gerard and possibly another man. There’s a blood stain on the floor that doesn’t seem to have a source.”

John forces himself not to react to any of the story, and then says, “What about the man that shot at me and Chris Argent?”

“We only have what you’ve told us about him,” Parrish says. “Henry claims to have left the building directly after watching the kid kill Gerard.”

“Why didn’t he call the police?” John asks. He’s determined to find a hole in this story.

“He was afraid of staying there and getting the kid’s attention,” Parrish says, and there’s a lift in his eyebrow that gives John hope.

“But he’s okay just coming forward as a witness?” John asks.

“He ‘has faith in the police,’” Parrish says, rolling his eyes.

“You don’t believe him,” John says, feeling relief go through him. This will be so much easier if they’re already against Henry.

“I think we should take Derek a picture of Henry and see if he knows him,” Parrish says. “Something is off in his story, even if I don’t know what yet.”

“Who did he name as the killer?” John asks, knowing he has to ask.

Parrish and Cordova both look hesitant to tell him and glance at each other. Finally, Cordova opens his mouth.

“Scott McCall,” he says.

“What?” John really isn’t surprised, he’s not, but he is furious, so that isn’t hard to fake.

“He gave us a description,” Cordova says, and he hands a paper to John. He looks at it, and it’s an almost perfect replica of Scott’s face.

“That...is most definitely Scott,” he admits, feeling slightly sick. “But --.”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Cordova sighs. “Scott’s a good kid. We know, and he’s a good friend of Stiles’s. But without any other evidence, we can’t just ignore this.”

“I know,” John says, feeling tired again. “I’ll make sure to keep Stiles out of your way. He’s not going to be happy about this.”

“We know,” Parrish says.

“What are you going to do now?” John asks, because he’s curious.

“We’re going to question Scott,” Cordova says. “Once we figure out his lawyer situation. He doesn’t have one, so we’re calling one in for him, but it’s late and we’re still trying to find one.”

 _That’s a problem we didn’t think of_. “He said yes to a lawyer?”

“He hasn’t said anything yet,” Parrish says. “He hasn’t resisted, either. He’s mostly just glared at the wall.”

Parrish shifts somewhat uncomfortably in his chair at that, and John wonders if the wolf in Scott is showing. After the conversation in the car that morning, he knows Scott’s anchor isn’t strong enough for whatever reason, and as far as he knows, Scott hasn’t done anything to rectify this. It makes him nervous. If something happens to tip Scott over the edge, they’re going to have a lot to explain.

“We’re going to send a sketch artist in later to get descriptions of the last few men from Derek,” Cordova says. “But we’re going to wait a while on that. Derek seems to be pretty steady at the moment, but we don’t want to push him too far.”

“He and Stiles seem pretty serious,” Parrish says with a suggestive tone. John snorts. He knows for a fact Stiles and Derek haven’t had sex, if only because he’s pretty sure Stiles will wake up the entire neighborhood with some sort of celebration when he loses his virginity. It’s a relief to know that much, at least. It helps him get over the unusual age gap between the two of them.

“He and Stiles care about each other very much,” John says. “And that’s all I’m saying about my son’s relationship with his boyfriend.”

Parrish is grinning at him now in mischievous way. John rolls his eyes and says, “So, about the case?”

“We’ll let you know if we have any further information,” Cordova says before Parrish can say anything, for which John is thankful. He nods, and gets up, intent on returning to talk to his son, Derek, and Melissa. He’s got some plans in mind, and he’s going to need their help.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo. So this is kind of a filler chapter, 'cause I needed to set up the rest of the fic, but there are some Sterek moments and also some pack feels, so there's that. 
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

Derek’s never felt entirely comfortable in the sheriff’s station. And he’s been here several times before. Once when Matt was holding him, Stiles, Scott, Melissa, and John hostage; once when Isaac was arrested for his dad’s murder; once when he was arrested for the murder of Laura; and once before that, right after the fire. It’s not a place he has good memories of.

At the moment though, he’s okay. Stiles is next to him, humming ‘Winter Wonderland’ for no discernable reason. Melissa’s there, too, and she’s reading a book she apparently keeps in her purse. They are two people he generally trusts, and so he’s able to keep himself calm. It helps that he can also hear Allison, Lydia, and Isaac catching Danny up on everything they’ve been through hence far out in the car, and Mr. Stilinski -- John (it’s easier to use; Stilinski is a _long_ last name) talking to Parrish and Cordova. He can’t hear Scott beyond a strangely muffled heartbeat, and he hopes that’s just because Scott isn’t talking to anyone.

“Is Scott in an interrogation room?” he asks Stiles quietly.

“Yeah, probably,” Stiles answers, cutting himself off of his rendition.

“How soundproof is that room?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” Stiles admits. “I’ve never asked. Why?”

“Scott’s heartbeat is really muffled,” Derek says. “Hard to pick up.”

Stiles nods, looking thoughtful.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” he says. “The interrogation rooms are monitored constantly when there’s someone in it, and there’s a camera that’s always running. No one is going to risk it, not now when there are so many officers here.”

Derek nods. Some of the tension in him leaks out, and he leans back in his chair, listening to Stiles’s heartbeat and relaxing.

He doesn’t cut himself off from the rest of the station though, so he hears it when the sheriff heads back down the hallway towards them. He straightens up, which catches Stiles’s attention just before John comes into view of the hallway. Stiles waves, and John raises an eyebrow at him as he opens the door.

“Yo,” Stiles says. “What’s up?”

John sits next to Melissa, and Derek remembers the conversation at the hospital that morning. He ducks his head to hide his smile and nearly loses it when Stiles lightly kicks his shin. He looks up once he’s regained control and sees John looking at him, an eyebrow raised. He adopts his best innocent face.

“You’re spending way too much time with Stiles if you think that’s going to work.” John is clearly not impressed.

“I am offended,” Stiles announces. Melissa’s smirking now, and Derek just shakes his head and takes a drink of his water.

John sighs and leans forward. “The witness’s name is Henry Dubois. Apparently he works at the office building.”

“Recognize the name?” Stiles asks Derek. He shakes his head.

“They tried not to use names around me,” he says. “And if they slipped up...I don’t remember.”

Stiles doesn’t push it. He doesn’t even seem disappointed. He just nods and turns back to his dad. Derek is grateful.

“He claims to have been working late last night and heard shouting. He says he saw Scott kill the three men in the hallway and then Gerard. He says Scott used Peter as a shield of sorts.”

Derek can’t help but flinch at the name of his uncle. He’s been carefully ignoring what happened to Peter, unsure if he’ll be able to handle it. He feels horribly guilty for not looking for Peter sooner, and for not even realizing he was in trouble. When he’d first seen Peter in that place, it had felt like a punch to the gut. He’d been dosed with so much wolfsbane he hadn’t healed, and hadn’t even really been fighting. And now --.

There’s a hand on his now, and he blinks, somewhat disoriented. Stiles is pulling his hand toward him, opening his hand from the fist he’d formed. He’s looking at Derek, his face somewhat concerned, but he just offers his hand to Derek. He grabs it, trying to use it to ground himself.

John and Melissa are quiet, and the way they’re carefully not looking at him makes Derek think they know exactly what was going on. He takes a deep breath and says, “Sorry.”

John doesn’t acknowledge this, just starts talking again. “He gave the sketch artist a near perfect description of Scott.”

“That’s creepy,” Stiles makes a face.

“He says he doesn’t know anything about the man that shot at me and Chris,” John says. “On the up side, he also can’t say anything about the rest of you being there.”

“What do Parrish and Cordova think?” Stiles asks, looking faintly annoyed.

“Parrish is suspicious,” John says. “He doesn’t know why but he knows something’s up. Cordova, too. He doesn’t like Henry, and they both know Scott. But because of the evidence presented, they have to follow through on it.”

Stiles frowns, but nods. John lets out a slow breath and looks at them again.

“There _is_ something else we could do,” he says. Derek raises an eyebrow, confused. Stiles doesn’t seem to understand what his dad is saying, either, and that makes Derek somewhat nervous.

“What?” Stiles asks carefully.

“We could tell them,” John says.

Derek tilts his head. It’s not a bad idea at first glance. It _would_ be a good thing to have more officers in the know. It would be especially helpful in this situation, because there are things at play here Parrish and Cordova don’t know about. But it might put them in more danger. Derek’s not sure what to think.

Stiles is hesitating, and he glances sideways at Derek before looking back at his dad.

“I don’t know,” he says slowly.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” John says. “But I think telling Parrish and Cordova would be a good idea. They’re good men.”

Stiles bites his lip before opening his mouth. “I think -- I’d have to talk it over with Scott. That’s not a decision I can make without him. It affects the pack long-term, and technically I’m just a substitute.”

Derek rolls his eyes at Stiles’s explanation, but nods in agreement. John sighs and says, “I don’t suppose _I_ could talk it over with Scott?”

“You _could_ ,” Stiles says. “But even though you’re not a threat and he knows that, you’re outside the pack. I’m not sure it would work out, especially since he’s so determined to keep the rest of us out of it.”

He sounds bitter at the end of that sentence, and Derek raises an eyebrow, silently asking if everything was okay. Stiles just shakes his head.

“He’s just being stubborn,” he says out loud. “And reckless. Sometimes Scott does that.”

Derek snorts. “Says the one who drove his Jeep through a wall.”

“Excuse me, that was to save _your_ ass,” Stiles says, but he’s grinning. “And Scott’s. And Isaac, Chris, and Allison’s by association. And besides, I was almost sure I wasn’t going to die.”

“Almost?” John stares at Stiles. “One day, _very soon_ , you are going to tell me _everything_.”

Derek wonders how much Stiles left out of the ‘here’s everything we’ve been through’ story he knows he gave his dad. Apparently a lot, although to be fair the biggest thing he’d left out he hadn’t told _anybody_ (it explains how Stiles had known that the Argents had held Erica and Boyd captive that night; Derek had always wondered).

Stiles, however, isn’t paying attention to his dad anymore. He’s squinting over his dad’s shoulder, and Derek follows his gaze, somewhat confused until he sees Holt staring into the room. Holt’s eyes are narrowed, and it makes Derek nervous. He hurriedly turns his gaze to the side.

“Hey, Dad?” Stiles says, his tone casual. “How hard would I have to try to get Holt fired?”

John looks somewhat startled before he turns around, too. Holt turns and is walking away before John can see him, but it’s clear from John’s face that he doesn’t like him, either.

“I’m hoping we won’t even have to try,” John sighs. “ _No_ , that is _not_ permission for you to try and get him fired. I need you to stay out of the way here. You’ll just make things worse for Scott.”

It’s clear that Stiles doesn’t like that, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he leans back, his grip on Derek’s hand tightening for a second before he says, “So what’s our game plan, then?”

John sighs. “There isn’t one for now. Parrish and Cordova are trying to figure out the lawyer situation for Scott. I don’t know what we’re going to do about that.”

“I have a lawyer,” Derek says. It hurts to say that, because his mom had been a lawyer, and a damn good one, but as soon as he’d become Alpha, he’d put out word for a supernatural lawyer, and had eventually come up with the best of the best. “One in the know. I can call her?”

He says it like a question, because he’s not really sure where the boundaries are here, but John nods immediately, and Stiles is openly staring at him.

“You have an _in-the-know_ lawyer and you’re just now bringing it up?” he asks.

Derek narrows his eyes at him. “I’ve been distracted.”

Stiles immediately looks apologetic. Derek just shakes his head. He knows Stiles didn’t really mean anything by it.

“Wait,” Melissa says. “We can’t afford a lawyer.”

“I can pay for it,” Derek says.

“We can’t ask you to do that,” Melissa says, looking at him with something like confusion in her eyes.

Derek raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t. I offered.”

“Why?” Melissa asks, seemingly frustrated. Derek’s not following her train of thought at all.

“Scott’s my Alpha,” he says, unsure how exactly to make it any clearer than that.

“This is a pack problem, too,” Stiles reminds Melissa. “Right now, this whole thing is an attack on our Alpha, our leader, and if there’s something we can do to protect him, we’re going to jump on it. Please don’t refuse.”

For a second, it looks like Melissa is going to do just that, but then she sighs and says, “Fine. But I want to talk to her first.”

Derek nods. “Is there a computer I can use to pull up her information?”

Stiles just hands him his phone. Derek gives him an annoyed look, but brings up the website on his phone before handing it over to Melissa to write down. John goes to tell Parrish and Cordova that there’s been a decision made, and Stiles gets up and starts pacing around the room, clearly thinking about something.

“What?” Derek asks finally, as Melissa goes out to the hallway for some privacy on her phone.

“There’s just something I feel like we’re overlooking,” Stiles says, running a hand through his hair. “And I need to talk to Scott. I feel like telling Parrish and Cordova is a good idea, but I’m pretty sure doing that without asking first breaks some sort of protocol, especially since I’m not a wolf.”

Stiles trails off after that, but starts pacing again, and when John comes back into the room, Derek’s given up on watching him and has his head down on his arms. He’s still tired and starting to relax to the point of sleep.

“So,” John says, and Derek lifts his head to look at him. “The good news is they didn’t find Scott’s fingerprints at the building. The bad news is, they didn’t find _any_ fingerprints at the building, and they’re convinced someone is missing because there’s a giant spot on the floor from Isaac.”

Derek winces. He doesn’t want to think about that. He doesn’t want to think about any of it. He puts his head back down.

“I need to talk to Scott,” Stiles mutters.

“You need to relax,” John says. “This isn’t just on you to solve, Stiles.”

Stiles doesn’t seem to be listening. Derek doesn’t lift his head, but as Stiles passes him again, he sticks his foot out, and Stiles trips over his foot.

“Dude!” Stiles says. “What --?”

“Stiles, sit down,” John says. “You’re too jumpy to be trying to solve this. Try to get some sleep. You do have to go to school tomorrow.”

Stiles groans, but drops into the chair next to Derek. “It’s just, I feel like I’m missing something that’s right in front of me, you know?”

“I know the feeling,” John says, his tone knowing. “But you’re all running on adrenaline right now. _Sleep_ , Stiles, after school tomorrow you can come here and help figure out a battle plan.”

“Tomorrow’s supposed to be movie night,” Stiles complains. “Is nothing sacred anymore?”

“You’re so dramatic,” Derek mumbles.

“You say that like it’s news,” Stiles replies.

“You say that like it’s a good comeback.”

“Oh, my God,” Stiles says. “You _have_ been spending too much time with me. I didn’t believe it at first. I’m contagious.”

“You’re _something_ , all right,” Derek’s glad his head is still down, because he can’t hide the smile on his face. He hears John laugh quietly and the door closes again, leaving Derek and Stiles alone in the room.

“I don’t think I can sleep,” Stiles admits after about five minutes of silence. “I’m too jumpy, and we just woke up a little while ago.”

Derek doesn’t say anything, but he does drop one of his hands where Stiles can reach it. Stiles immediately takes it and rests it on his leg, absent-mindedly tapping his fingers on Derek’s hand. Derek lets the non-rhythm lull him to the edge of sleep.

He wakes up several times, sweating and panicked. He’s pretty sure he’s having nightmares, but he’s never remembered his dreams, and these ones -- thank _God_ \-- are no exception.

It doesn’t make the fourth time he wakes up, having kicked out and hit the table, anymore pleasant.

Stiles is always right there, muttering words of comfort or sometimes just nonsense to Derek until he calms down again. Derek doesn’t think Stiles has actually slept yet, which is definitely a problem. From what he’s heard, the pack hasn’t all actually slept through the night since Derek was taken. It annoys Derek how comforted that makes him feel, because the pack should not be forfeiting sleep. It’s not good.

(But a tiny part of Derek just feels glad that his pack cares about him that much.)

He’s woken up again by John, who is carrying coffee and announcing, “Up and at ‘em, Stiles, you’ve got school and you need to change clothes.”

Derek lifts his head and notices that at some point, the hat that he’d stolen from Stiles that he was still wearing had slipped down over his eyes. He makes an annoyed noise and pushes it back up above his eyes. John sets a coffee and a big blueberry muffin down in front of him, and Derek, who is starving, immediately grabs for it.

“Stiles,” John says, and Derek glances to the side to see Stiles, head down on the table, fast asleep. His hair is standing up like he’d been running his hands through it constantly, and even in his sleep he looks worried.

“Stiles,” Derek says, lightly kicking Stiles’s leg.

“No,” Stiles doesn’t even open his eyes.

“I didn’t even say anything,” Derek looks at John, who just looks amused.

“No,” Stiles repeats.

“Stiles,” John leans forward and puts a coffee in front of him. “You promised Lydia you’d go to school today, remember? Science?”

Stiles groans, but opens his eyes. He lifts his head and sees the coffee, and his eyes light up.

John leaves the room while they eat their muffins, and Stiles looks at Derek, his eyes worried.

“You gonna be okay today?” he asks.

Derek nods. He’s got some control, at least. He thinks. If it gets to be too bad, he’ll just run for the school.

Stiles doesn’t think that’s funny when he says this out loud. “Maybe I should stay.”

“Stiles,” Derek sighs. “You can’t be around me 24/7. And I don’t want to be subjected to Lydia’s wrath. Go to school. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Stiles says reluctantly. “But if you need me, call me. Use my dad’s phone. Okay?”

Derek promises and Stiles leaves after going through every excuse in the book and being shut down by both Derek and John. Derek listens to him leave, to the sound of the Jeep leaving the station, and takes a second to locate Scott. He hears the steady heartbeat. Scott’s talking to someone, although Derek can’t quite make out what he’s saying, and he sounds somewhat calm.

It’s quiet in the room, too quiet, and Derek has to get up and go out into the hall to find John, because he can’t deal with the quiet. John doesn’t comment on it other than to give him a tablet to use, which Derek pulls up Pandora on and listens to music, calming himself down. He’s irritated that he’s so jumpy, and annoyed that he wishes Stiles were there. He can keep himself calm. He’s _fine_.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Okay! We're at the chapter where things start actually happening. Enough build up, welcome to the beginning of the end of the ride. I'm so tired right now, I'm so sorry, I don't actually know what I'm saying.
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

On a normal day, Stiles doesn’t actually hate school. The people there tend to make him frustrated and annoyed, and sometimes the food _sucks_ , but he doesn’t actually hate it. He likes learning, and generally the teachers are competent and know what they’re doing.

But today, Stiles is on edge and annoyed. He hadn’t slept well at all, because he was antsy. Derek had kept waking up, clearly having nightmares, but he hadn’t said anything about them. Stiles’s dad had crashed in his office, and Scott had been put in the holding cell for the night. Melissa had left at around four, because she had to go to work at six ( _when_ does that woman sleep?), and the others had left at around five, because all of them were going to school and none of them had been home much. He’d fallen asleep around five-thirty.

It had been six when Stiles’s dad had come into the room to wake them up. It was six-twenty when Stiles finally ran out of reasons to stick around and basically got shoved out the door by his dad. He’d gone home, took a quick shower, got dressed, taken his Adderall, and headed to school. Where he was now, on his way to their first class, English. Allison, Lydia, Isaac, and Danny are all in a corner of the room when he walks in, and he goes over to them immediately.

“Yo,” he says.

There’s a general murmur of greeting, which reassures Stiles that the rest of the pack is indeed feeling as great as he is. Stiles thinks after this is all over, they should go on vacation. Permanently. In Hawaii, because why the hell not?

“So, what’s the game plan?” Allison finally says. Stiles glances at the clock and sees there’s still a few minutes before class starts. He lets out a sigh.

“We’re not sure,” Stiles admits. “I don’t know how much you were listening to?” he looks at Isaac with a questioning look.

Isaac just shrugs. Stiles thinks he looks like shit, and probably should have stayed home another day, but he’s not sure if that’s a good idea. He doesn’t think he’d be able to make Isaac go home, so he just lets it go and waits for someone to speak.

“We know the basics of what Derek said to Parrish and Cordova,” Allison says, when Isaac makes no move to speak. “And we know what you messaged us. But we were trying to catch Danny up with what was going on, and keep watch, and listening in on the specifics wasn’t a priority.”

Stiles nods. “Derek’s calling a lawyer for Scott, one that’s in the know. The witness’s name is Henry Dubois. He gave a really good description of Scott, which is creepy as fuck. Parrish and Cordova are suspicious but don’t have any other leads. Dubois claims to have left before we showed up, so we’re all in the clear. The place had been wiped down, so no worries about fingerprints. And they think there’s someone else out there because of a giant blood spot left by Isaac.”

Isaac grimaces. Allison does, too. Danny looks at the ceiling, like he’s praying for guidance. It strikes Stiles as funny and he starts to laugh and has to cover his mouth.

“Are you okay?” Lydia asks, looking at him with a slightly concerned look on her face.

Stiles ignores her question and says, “They’ve ruined movie night.”

Lydia’s expression turns to the one she uses when she wants Stiles to know he’s an idiot. He just grins back at her.

“So, lawyer for Scott,” Allison says. “And no other leads? Seriously?”

Stiles runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. There’s _something_ here we’re missing. I know there is. But I can’t _find it_.”

He can feel his frustration echoed in each member of the pack. Then Lydia straightens up and says, “We’ll figure it out.”

Her tone is confident, and the look in her eyes dares them to defy her. Stiles can’t help but smile a little and feels a bit better as he straightens up, too.

“Okay,” he says. “Scott doesn’t have a phone, so check in with me, okay? My dad promised to keep me informed, so if I learn anything I’ll pass it on. If anything happens, let the rest of us know immediately. We’ll meet up at lunch.”

Everyone nods in agreement. The bell rings seconds later, and they all go to their seats, waiting for the class to begin.

And so the school day goes. Stiles manages to pull enough of his attention to the science project he and Lydia had done, and their presentation goes pretty well. The pack meets up again at lunch, but as nothing has happened yet, they can’t really do much. They agree to meet up again after school.

By Economics, rumors about Scott’s absence have gone off the rails. Stiles can’t help but laugh at some of them. Some people are under the impression that Scott skipped town (for various reasons: drug dealing, pregnant girlfriend, an offer to go pro in lacrosse). Some people think he’s had a really bad asthma attack and is in the hospital, which used to be pretty common. Some people are convinced he’s been expelled for sleeping with one of their teachers ( _why?_ ). Stiles fends off questions all day about it, giving various answers including alien abduction and the CIA.

When the school day is finally over, Stiles, Isaac, and Danny are reminded by Coach that they have practice.

“And don’t think you can skip it!” Coach says. “With McCall gone, we need every player we can spare.”

Which is _great_ , except Stiles has absolutely no patience for the team, Isaac’s not really up to playing, and Danny doesn’t seem to be focused. Allison and Lydia sit in the stands, watching, but don’t really seem to be into it.

Practice goes terribly and Coach is absolutely _furious_ by the end of it. Stiles very nearly snaps and yells back at Coach after he calls them all ‘lazy freeloaders’ and Danny’s forced to drag him out of the locker room before he actually loses it.

“What do we do now?” Lydia asks as they walk out to the parking lot.

“What cars do we have?” Stiles asks. “I have my Jeep.”

“And I’ve got mine,” Danny adds.

Stiles nods, thinking this through. No one should be alone right now. There are things they need to pick up. Derek’s going to need more clothes if he’s stuck at the station much longer, and has asked that someone bring him his computer. Stiles’s dad had told Stiles Derek’s phone was a lost cause, so Stiles wants to get him a new phone. He also wants to pick up some snacks, namely Dr. Pepper and Doritos (movie night or no movie night, Stiles is going to make the most of this).

“Okay,” he says. “Danny, can you take Lydia and Isaac and go to Derek’s apartment? He needs some clothes, and his laptop. Allison and I can go shopping for a new phone and some snacks, and we can all meet back at the station. Do _not_ turn your phones off.”

Everyone nods, and Allison climbs in the passenger seat of Stiles’s Jeep. He watches to make sure that the others all get in the car and then lets them go first.

“Any particular reason I’m with you?” Allison asks. Her tone is casual, but Stiles can feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of his head. He’s somewhat glad Allison doesn’t have laser vision.

“Paranoia,” he answers. “Also I figured you’d want to be here for the update I’m about to get from my dad.”

Allison narrows her eyes at him. “What are you saying?”

Since _you’re totally still into Scott and I think I’m the only one who knows_ is probably the wrong thing to be saying right now, Stiles just says, “Well, Gerard _is_ your family, and if there are any other hunters involved I’ll have to pass on their names to you anyway. Two birds, one stone.”

Thankfully, his phone starts vibrating right then, cutting her off from any other questions. Stiles doesn’t even look at the display, instead just answering it.

“Hello?”

“Stiles,” it’s his dad.

“Hang on, I’m putting you on speaker,” he says, and pushes the button. Allison takes it from him, holding it so he can drive. “What’s up?”

“Derek gave descriptions of the two he could,” his dad is speaking in his ‘all-business’ tone. “One of them was Henry. The other is someone who isn’t in the database, but has been seen several times in the area.”

“Is Scott off the hook then?” Allison asks hopefully.

“No one’s really sure what’s going on right now,” his dad says. “Parrish and Cordova don’t want to let Scott go just yet, since it seems like he’s being targeted. Derek’s lawyer -- her name is Amelia Walters -- arrived a couple of hours ago and talked to Scott and Melissa. They let Scott out of the interrogation room when his mom left, though.”

“That’s good news, right?” Allison looks at Stiles.

“Probably,” Stiles says. “It depends on why. Where is he now?”

“Remember the room I always sent you to when you had to wait here for me to get off shift?” his dad asks.

“He’s in _that_ room?” Stiles is surprised. “That’s a private room. So they don’t think he’s a suspect.”

“They don’t,” his dad says. “Derek hasn’t left the room, there’s no way he could have known what Henry looks like. Even Holt agreed.”

Stiles bites his lip. “So Dubois is no longer a problem?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” his dad sighs. “There’s still no physical evidence. All we have are pointing fingers.”

Stiles lets out a frustrated breath. “And that’s all we’re going to have until someone makes a move.”

It’s annoying, but he doesn’t know how to get around it. They just have to be prepared for something to happen.

“How’s Derek?” he asks. He’s been trying to keep an eye on him all day through the pack bond, but he’s still somewhat anxious.

“Derek’s okay,” his dad says. “He’s been in the same room all day. He handled giving the descriptions really well, and now he’s got your tablet and has occupied himself with it. Oh, I didn’t mention telling Parrish and Cordova to Scott yet, but I _did_ get to speak to the lawyer. She thinks it’s a good idea, but she basically said the same thing to me that you guys did. So when you get back here, I’ll let you in to talk to him. I’m also going to send you a picture of the other guy Derek described. Do what you will with it.”

Stiles’s dad is awesome. He grins. “What about the third guy?”

“We don’t know anything about him,” his dad says. “Except that he’s male.”

“That’s the part I can’t get past,” Stiles says. “A third guy who thus far hasn’t shown himself. Why? Is it another back up plan? Is he hurt? Is he dead? Is he planning on coming after us?” Stiles narrows his eyes. “And why did they even bother having Dubois come in if they knew Derek could identify him?”

“You think Gerard would go after Scott and Derek first, right?” his dad asks. Stiles can just see the look on his face.

“Yes,” Allison says. “For personal reasons.”

“Yeah,” Stiles agrees. “Allison would probably be next on his list. Maybe me next, because I’m Scott’s best friend. He wasn’t interested in Lydia when he learned she wasn’t a werewolf, Danny wasn’t involved as far as Gerard knew. Isaac would probably be after me. I’d actually say Scott’s mom would be before me. Gerard threatened her more than once to get Scott to cooperate. He threatened _you_ once.”

“What about my dad?” Allison looks at Stiles.

Stiles sighs as he turns the Jeep into the parking lot. There’s so many variables in this situation, he doesn’t know what to do. Chris is as high on the list as Allison is, but Chris can’t drive and is hurt. Then again, maybe Gerard didn’t plan for that. Maybe he’s going to stay away from Chris because of his skills. Or maybe not.

Finally, he comes to a decision.

“We can go pick your dad up after we get these,” he says. “Since he _is_ at risk. And we should send that picture to everyone.”

Allison nods and goes to do so. Stiles parks the Jeep and says, “We’re at the store to get Derek a new phone. We’re gonna pick up some snacks, then get Chris, and then we’ll be at the station.”

“Okay,” his dad says.

“Love-you-bye,” Stiles says, and Allison hangs up the phone. They get out of the Jeep and go into the store. It’s relatively empty for a Friday afternoon, but Stiles finds the model of the phone he knows Derek had, and picks it and a new memory card up. They pay for it and head out to the car.

“You knew what phone you wanted awfully fast,” Allison comments as they walk out of the store.

“Well, _yeah_ ,” Stiles says. “Derek’s my boyfriend, I know what kind of phone he has. Or had.”

Allison grins at him as he walks around the Jeep to the driver’s side. He’s just about to open the door and climb inside when there’s a sudden pinch in his shoulder. He looks down and for a couple of seconds, doesn’t realize what he’s looking at. There’s something sticking out of his arm. He looks up at Allison, who is frozen halfway in the car, her eyes wide and worried, and says, “Shit.”

“Stiles?” Allison says, and she climbs directly through the Jeep and drops to the ground.

“Shit,” Stiles repeats stupidly, and he looks at the things sticking out of his arm. He tries to lift his other arm to it, but doesn’t make it, and he looks at Allison helplessly.

“Tranquilizer,” Allison says and she grabs a napkin from the Jeep and pulls it right out of Stiles’s arm. He yelps.

“Sorry,” Allison says, looking towards the parking lot. Stiles tries to follow her, but his body doesn’t want to listen, and he stumbles and ends up against the side of his Jeep. He’s disoriented and confused, and he feels Allison help him to the ground, but he can’t really focus on her. The world is spinning, and Stiles is tired, and he feels his body getting heavier and heavier. He can feel the rest of the pack starting to panic, but can’t focus on the feeling and looks up at Allison again. He feels like he’s in trouble, but he doesn’t quite know why.

“Something’s wrong with me,” he tries to say, but it doesn’t come out like that. Allison grimaces.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “We’ll handle it.”

Stiles nods heavily. He knows his pack will handle it. They always do.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter! Hooray! I just like updating and getting your kudos and comments 'cause they make me so happy. We have much fun in this chapter. Also, Dylan O'brien and Tyler Posey have both commented that the Jeep is a stick and that Dylan had to learn to drive a stick for it. It's never been brought up in the show, but I'm assuming that it is in the show, as well. And not everyone knows how to drive a stick (I don't) so I just figured hey, Allison doesn't know how to drive a stick and called it good. So that's my excuse.
> 
> Also, Scott howling to get Stiles's attention in last night's episode was great, I liked that scene.
> 
> Come to my [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

It comes out of nowhere. One second Stiles had been opening his door, and the next he was staring at a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his shoulder.

Allison freezes, staring at the dart for a few seconds. A few seconds too long, she can see it in Stiles’s face when he looks up at her and says, “Shit.”

“Stiles?” she doesn’t bother walking around the Jeep, instead climbing directly through it. She keeps one eye on his face as she looks at the dart.

“Shit,” Stiles repeats, and he’s already starting to slur. He raises his other arm and reaches for the dart, but can’t quite find it, and drops his arm. He looks at her with a somewhat confused look on his face, like he’s not entirely sure what’s happening.

“Tranquilizer,” Allison says, keeping her voice as calm as possible. It’s been in his arm too long, and she knows it. She should have gotten it out as soon as she’d realized what it was, but she hadn’t, and she doesn’t have time to feel guilty over that. She grabs a napkin from inside the Jeep and pulls the dart right out of Stiles’s arm. Stiles makes an indignant noise.

“Sorry.”

She looks towards the parking lot. There’s a black SUV driving away, and in the front seat, she can see a man. One she recognizes, from the picture Sheriff Stilinski had sent Stiles. One of the hunters. He’s not looking at them. He’s driving away, and Allison gets a good look at the license plate but doesn’t really have time to concentrate on it, because Stiles stumbles into her just then, the tranquilizer clearly taking effect. Allison lowers him to the ground, where he sits, leaning against his Jeep, looking really confused.

His breathing is shallow, which makes Allison nervous. Her first instinct is to load him in the Jeep and head straight for the hospital, but the Jeep is a stick and Allison’s never learned. She _should_ call an ambulance, because she doesn’t know what was in the dart, nor how much. It could be a sedative, or it could be something much worse. She can feel the rest of the pack starting to realize that something’s wrong. Scott’s anger and Derek’s panic alone are enough to throw her off, and they seem to get through to Stiles, too, because he looks up at her with very dilated eyes and opens his mouth to say something.

“‘Omethin ‘ng wi’ me,” is what comes out, horribly slurred and quiet. Allison makes a face, because she can’t help it, and casts around for something to say.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “We’ll handle it.”

Stiles nods once, and leans against the Jeep again.

“Keep looking at me, Stiles, okay?” Allison says as she reaches for her phone.

“Is he okay?” a voice asks, and Allison jumps and sees a woman standing there looking concerned.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” she says to the woman. It’s partially true. “There was this dart thing that just came out of nowhere and hit him in the shoulder.”

“Okay,” the woman says. “I’ll call 911, you try to keep him awake, okay?”

Allison nods. She taps Stiles’s cheek, and he blinks at her, albeit slowly.

“Stay awake, Stiles, okay?” she says. “Stay awake.”

“‘M tired,” he whines.

“I know you are,” Allison says, and hears a buzzing. It’s coming from Stiles’s pocket, and she reaches for it, pulling it out. Stiles doesn’t even react to that, which worries her, and she sees the caller id says **Incoming Call: Dad**. The sheriff. She sighs, knowing it’s probably actually Derek, and hits ignore before sending a text from her own phone saying she’ll call to explain in a little while.

Allison keeps up a steady stream of comments to Stiles, trying to keep his attention on her. He’s increasingly less coherent and stops responding altogether about the same time the ambulance shows up. Allison realizes she’s been gripping the dart in her hand tightly, possibly to the point of breaking it, and forces herself to give up the dart to the EMTs. She tries to tell them to keep it safe because it could be evidence, and one of them definitely hears her, so that’s something. They allow her to ride in the ambulance after she explains that she can’t drive his car, because it’s a stick, and there’s room for her there.

She gets to the hospital with Stiles and is told she has to wait in the waiting room as Stiles is rolled back to get examined. She’s very annoyed, but unsurprised. The other pack members are panicking, and Allison is getting a headache. She rubs her forehead and pulls her phone out.

“Allison?” she hears, and turns to see Melissa standing there. “What happened?”

“Stiles got hit with a tranquilizer dart,” she says. “At least, I _hope_ it was just a tranquilizer, although it was a hunter that hit him, so God only knows what it was.”

Melissa grimaces. “Okay. Just you here?”

“Yeah,” Allison says. “Stiles and I were going shopping when it happened. We were supposed to meet up with the others. Speaking of which, I need to call the sheriff back, or Derek might show up.”

Melissa nods and says, “Good luck.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John is _exhausted_ , as is everyone else at the station. There’s this sense of hurry-up-and-wait happening, which is John’s second least favorite time as a police officer. His shoulder hurts, he has no idea how this is going to play out, the coffee maker broke, and he really wants a shower. It’s been a horrible week for everyone, and John is ready for it to be over.

He’s once again sitting with Derek, because he wants to be there when Stiles gets back to talk to him about talking to Scott. So he’s there when Derek suddenly looks up, eyes narrowed, as if he’s confused.

“What?” John asks. Derek frowns.

“Allison’s panicking,” he says. Then his face tightens. “Something’s wrong with Stiles.”

 _Those_ are words no parent wants to hear about their child, and John immediately pushes back the initial panic.

“Meaning what?” he asks.

Derek shakes his head. “He’s disoriented. Really disoriented.”

Derek’s head tilts, and he grimaces. “Yeah, Scott, I know. We’ll call.”

John stares for a second until he remembers Derek’s a werewolf and pulls out his phone. He dials the number and puts it on speaker.

No one answers, but a few seconds later, John’s phone lights up with a text from Allison.

_Hang on, kind of busy, explain in a bit._

John lets out an annoyed breath, feeling his worry go up a notch.

“Yes, I know, Scott,” Derek says through gritted teeth.

“What?” John asks.

“Stiles is unconscious,” Derek says, looking very angry.

John clamps down on the panic again. He’s starting to really hate this whole supernatural thing. Stiles is _seventeen_ for God’s sake, he’s not supposed to be this worried about him so often. He wants to run right to his son’s aid, but he doesn’t know where his son is at, and if he leaves Derek and Scott without a way to find out what happened, he’s just asking for trouble. So he stands up and starts pacing.

There’s a knock on the door, and John looks to see Parrish standing there, looking somewhat apprehensive. John doesn’t feel like dealing with anything else at the moment, but he doesn’t really have a choice, so he waves him into the room, and Parrish opens the door.

“Uh, Sheriff?” he says. He seems to be somewhat uncomfortable. John has a sinking feeling. “Can I talk to you really quick?”

John looks at the phone that’s now sitting on the table, then at Derek. The werewolf is watching him anxiously. John knows he can’t leave Derek without a way to find out what’s going on. He sighs and nods, getting up and leaving the phone on the table. Derek will keep Allison on the phone long enough for John to come back, he’s sure of it.

He follows Parrish out of the room and nearly runs into Holt, who is walking down the hall. He’s scowling and just looks at them before walking off, his hands in his pockets. John frowns and glances back towards the room Derek’s in. He can’t help that he’s suspicious. He’s on edge, his son’s unconscious, and he’s stuck at work. But everything seems normal.

They pass the room Scott’s in. John glances in, unable to stop the impulse to check that he’s okay. Scott’s standing close to the window, watching them. He’s clearly aware of what’s going on, and is standing in his Alpha stance. John raises an eyebrow, and Scott nods.

“Tell him,” he mouths, nodding towards Parrish. John blinks, caught off-guard, but he nods, feeling a sense of relief as he starts to plan out this conversation. It’s not going to be easy.

They end up in John’s office. John can’t say he’s surprised.

Parrish turns to him, still looking uncomfortable. He looks like he doesn’t want to say what’s on his mind, and for a few seconds, just looks at John. John’s pretty sure he knows what’s going to happen and how it’s going to go. Parrish has always been one of John’s best detectives, young as he is. He’d served two years in the Army, and has a sharp mind. He’s brave, and quick. John had known Parrish would catch on eventually.

“Just say what you need to, Parrish,” he says, wanting to get this over with.

“Something bigger is going on here,” Parrish doesn’t say it as a question. He narrows his eyes at John, and continues, “And you know what.”

“Yes,” John doesn’t deny it. There’s no point.

Parrish looks somewhat upset. “So, you’re keeping secrets from us? Is it Stiles? Is he in some kind of trouble you’re not telling us about? Do you not trust us?”

 _Now_ Parrish sounds hurt, and John feels really guilty, because he trusts Parrish and all of his officers. They’re like family to him. They’re good men. He wouldn’t keep this a secret if it were his choice.

But it’s not his secret to tell, and he knows that telling others could endanger not only the pack, but also the person he tells. It’s complicated, and in some ways John feels like he’s playing a political game with his son and his friends, but it’s necessary. The threat of the wrong person finding out is very real, and John’s still new to this, but he doesn’t want to underestimate any threats.

“Parrish,” he says, and tries to figure out how to word this. “It’s kind of a big mess. It’s a big secret for a small group of people, and up until now you weren’t allowed to know. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that they didn’t know you and had no reason to trust you.”

Parrish doesn’t look exactly happy about that, but he’s not arguing. He’s crossing his arms expectantly, clearly taking nothing John says at face value. John can deal with that. He’ll get Scott or Derek to demonstrate in a little bit.

“It started a long time ago,” John says. “Before I know -- I don’t have the entire story. The story I know starts when we were looking for the second half of Laura Hale’s body.”

“So Derek’s involved,” Parrish says thoughtfully. “Which means Stiles is, and Scott. Probably that whole little group that showed up at the hospital, am I right?”

John nods. “There are a few others, but that’s most of them.”

“So what are they involved in?” Parrish asks. John sighs.

“You’re not going to believe me at first,” he says. “But I _can_ prove it. Bear that in mind.”

Parrish doesn’t look impressed. John braces himself, and says, “Werewolves.”

For a few seconds, Parrish just stares at him. Then he nods slowly. “Werewolves. Of course.”

It’s not sarcastic. John doesn’t know what to do with that.

“So, Stiles is a werewolf?” Parrish seems to be just accepting it. John blinks.

“No,” John says. “Stiles is human. Scott and Derek are werewolves. And Isaac.”

“Lahey?” Parrish asks. John nods. “Is that how he got out? Did he actually kill his dad?”

“No, he didn’t,” John shakes his head. “And no, he got out because Derek and Stiles broke him out, but that’s another story. Why are you just accepting this?”

“I’ve seen a lot of weird things in this town,” Parrish says. “I saw some even weirder things while in the Army. The existence of werewolves does not come as a surprise to me.”

He says it so matter-of-factly that John actually laughs. This is not at _all_ how he’d predicted this to go. He opens his mouth to continue, but as he does, the power goes out.

“Now, really?” John sighs, looking up at the ceiling. As if they didn’t already have enough going on. He sighs and looks back at Parrish, ready to just continue the conversation, until there’s an odd roar that echoes through the station. An _animal_ roar.

 _Shit._ John lunges for the door and runs out, sliding to a stop as he sees what’s happening.

Scott’s in the room he’d been put in earlier, fully wolfed out, throwing himself against an invisible barrier in the doorway. Down the hall, Derek’s having a similar battle, but unlike Scott, who is actually making slow progress, Derek just keeps getting knocked backwards. Both of them are panting, and John’s pretty sure they’re both injured, but they’re healing.

“Sheriff!” Scott says, his words weirdly slurred due to his fangs. “The ground -- mountain ash -- can’t get past it.”

John looks down and sees a line of fine black powder. He reaches down and breaks the line, and Scott comes tumbling towards them. Before either of them have a chance to react, he’s up and down the hall, standing just outside the line trapping Derek. Scott growls, like he’s trying to intimidate the line out of the way, and looks back down the hall at John and Parrish, obviously ordering them to break the line.

Parrish is down the hall faster than John, and he breaks the line for Scott. Derek falls out of the room, clutching John’s phone in one hand and looking somewhat panicked. Scott grabs Derek’s sleeve and pulls him around behind him. Then Scott turns to John and Parrish, his eyes bright red and his face angry.

“We gotta go,” he says, using his Alpha voice, clearly not caring that John and Parrish aren't his pack. “ _Now._ I don’t care what trouble I’ll get in, we can’t stay here.”

It’s a good theory, but just as they start towards the door, two people come around the corner. John knows immediately what’s happening, but before he can react, he and Parrish are shoved through a door, and there’s several gunshots. John looks out into the hallway and sees blood, but it’s dark out there and he can’t tell where it’s coming from. Parrish has his weapon out, and is going towards the door.

“Come on!” he says. “I can cover you!”

Scott and Derek don’t hesitate, and come right through the door. Parrish fires off a couple of shots, and then ducks into the room. John slams the door closed and turns around.

“We can’t stay here long,” he says. Now that he’s looking, he can see that the blood is coming from Scott’s arm, and he’s covering a bullet hole with his hand. Derek’s staring at it, and his eyes were wide and scared.

“You’re bleeding,” Parrish informs Scott. Scott grimaces.

“Wolfsbane bullet?” John asks. He’s trying to direct this question at Derek, but Derek is still frozen, staring Scott’s arm.

“Yes,” Scott says through clenched teeth. “It’s fine, I can handle it until we get out of here.”

John glances around. He looks at Parrish, who is staring at Scott’s arm with something like confusion.

“Parrish, who was here?” he asks.

“Um,” Parrish tears his eyes away from Scott’s arm and looks at him. “Not many of us. Cordova, Holt, Gina. There was a five car pile-up that required quite a few people.”

John nods. Gina works the front desk, so she’s likely somewhere near there. Cordova is probably near his office. Last John had seen, Holt was walking down the hall. He doesn’t know if any of them are okay, but it’s a starting place.

“Holt,” Scott suddenly says, his voice somewhat strained. “He’s one of the guys who are shooting at us.”

John bites back the rush of anger that washes through him at that. If Holt is shooting at them, then he’s a hunter. He’s after the pack, and John had let the enemy in. He’d given Holt easy access to the pack. It’s an awful thought, but he can’t do anything about the past, and he doesn’t have time to think about it. He needs to move on and focus on what’s happening.

“Derek,” Scott interrupts his thoughts. “Snap out of it, man.”

Scott’s looking at Derek with something like terror in his eyes. Derek’s still staring at Scott’s arm, and the fear in his eyes has multiplied. He’s trembling, and looks like he could be set off at any moment.

Just as John’s about to ask, there’s a gunshot outside the door, and Derek starts, his eyes flashing human for a second before he doubles over, gasping for breath. John glances around wildly. He hadn’t seen anything hit Derek, nor had he heard the bullet come in the room, but clearly _something_ had happened. Scott’s looking around like he has no idea what to do, and Parrish is hesitantly moving forward.

It takes John a few seconds, but he realizes that Derek hasn’t been shot. He’s having a panic attack. It’s not fatal, but still bad. He seems to be trying to pull himself back together, but isn’t having much success, and Scott’s not much help, because he’s starting to panic too. John needs a plan to get them out of the station and to safety, and he needs it now.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So, this chapter has been rewritten like three times and then beta'd and then I added more. So. Most of it's beta'd, but if you see any mistakes it's probably from where I added something and was too impatient to send it back to my beta. Also, I got really excited when the sheriff said, "I don't know how you guys do it." in the show and that whole scene with Allison in the elevator was really cute and I liked it. I know that was like two episodes ago, but I sort of used it in this chapter? Or the idea of the sheriff being impressed by what they do, anyway.
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

John looks at the door. He can’t hear Holt or his friend. They’re gone, as far as he can tell, but he’s not a werewolf with super hearing.

“Where are they?” he asks Scott, who squeezes his eyes shut for a second, then opens them again.

“Few doors down,” Scott says. “They’re -- I think they’re setting up more mountain ash lines. It’ll slow us down.”

Scott sounds exhausted, scared, and hurt, and John can’t blame him. Derek’s still hyperventilating. Parrish looks steady. If anything, he looks more calm than John, which is irritating, and John pulls himself back together and says, “We need to get out of here. Parrish, are you okay with taking point?”

Parrish nods, checking his weapon. The noise it makes causes Scott to flinch, but he just makes a face when Parrish gives him a look. Derek is at least paying attention to their conversation, because he raises his head, clearly trying to slow his breathing. He seems to be succeeding somewhat, which is a relief.

John’s still working out the details of his plan when suddenly Scott’s head snaps up. He leans his head back and howls, loud and strong. Derek tries to join, but fails. Parrish looks surprised as hell, his hands over his ears and his eyes wide. John’s not even surprised, and just waits for Scott to finish.

“What was that?” he asks when Scott’s done.

“Isaac,” Scott explains. “He howled. He knows we’re in trouble, he’s on his way.”

Which is great, except Isaac is drained, and just one werewolf, and probably not close enough to be helpful. In fact, Isaac could be walking into a trap. There’s also the problem that there’s one guy unaccounted for who could be anywhere, and Stiles and Allison were already attacked as far as they could tell.

John realizes with a jolt that Derek is no longer holding his phone, and grimaces. Parrish has a perplexed look on his face, and says, “What are they waiting for?”

“What?” John asks, then it hits him. They know what room they’re in. Why are they wasting time putting down mountain ash lines, and not storming the room? They’re outgunned, and injured, Holt and his buddy should have no problem taking them down. It could have something to do with the fact that John and Parrish are there. They’re both human and not part of the pack. But John doesn’t think that’s it. Something else is going on here.

The lights come back on just then, and John hears the air kick on. That’s strange, because it’s been chilly, but not enough for the heating. They’d taken a vote as a whole station to keep it on at nights only, when it actually does get cold. It keeps the air comfortable and saves them money. So why is the air on?

Something Chris had said to him the morning before comes to mind, and he sees the pieces click together in his head. The realization makes him feel sick.

_Wolfsbane...they react to it faster than humans do...Scott, with his history of asthma, might have suffocated first._

“Oh, God,” he mumbles. “There’s wolfsbane in the ventilation.”

Scott looks up at him and nods. There’s a sort of defeated acceptance on his face, like he’s just given up on optimism. “Probably.”

“We need to get everyone out of here,” John says. He looks at Parrish. “You good to go?”

He nods, and steps forward to take the lead. John follows. Scott stumbles, but Derek, finally in control of himself, grabs his good arm and keeps him upright. He nods at John, who opens the door.

Parrish goes out quietly, his weapon up and ready to go. He looks down the hall and tenses and John fully expects gunfire, but there is none. Instead Parrish blinks and relaxes, saying, “Cordova?”

“Parrish?” John hears the familiar voice from down the hall. He sighs in relief and sticks his head out. There are black lines every fifteen feet, and John immediately starts to break them. Scott and Derek follow, the former leaning heavily on the latter.

Parrish joins John in breaking the lines. They’re thin lines, so John thinks there wasn’t much of it, but it’s still a pain in the ass. Cordova regards them with something like confusion, then points to Scott and says, “He’s bleeding.”

“I’m fine,” Scott says, though his voice breaks and betrays him. “I think I need to go to Deaton, though.”

“I’ll take you there when we get out of here,” John says, breaking yet another line. His phone is on sitting on the ground. He grabs it and sees the message light blinking, but he doesn’t really have time to focus on it, so he puts it in his pocket and prays Stiles is okay.

“What is going on?” Cordova asks.

“Werewolves,” Parrish says.

“ _Werewolves_?” Cordova demands. He doesn’t seem to be as accepting of the story as Parrish was, but John can’t focus on it right now.

“I smell it now,” Derek says. Both he and Scott are pale, and Scott’s arm’s still bleeding. John hurries to break the last line and then looks around the corner. There aren’t any lines down that hallway, and he sighs in relief, gesturing to Derek and Scott to move faster. They hurry out the door, where Gina, the secretary, is standing, looking confused.

Before anyone can say anything, a car starts to squeal away, and John turns to see Holt and Dubois in the front seats. He _can’t_ let them get away, and hurries to think of something. Before he can say anything, there’s a gunshot, and the right front tire of the car goes out. John glances to see Parrish standing with his gun held out.

Holt and Dubois both open their doors, but Parrish and Cordova are already running to chase them. The hunters don’t get very far, mainly because they’re arguing, and John sighs in relief as they’re both handcuffed and read their rights. He can hear them yelling at each other as Parrish and Cordova put them in cruisers to hold until the station is cleaned.

Another car comes flying into the parking lot and screeches to a stop. Isaac’s out of the car faster than John’s eyes can follow and doesn’t stop until he’s at Scott’s side. Danny’s in the passenger’s seat, and his face is full of awe and terror. John thinks it must have been a pretty wild ride to cause that expression. Lydia’s in the back seat, and looks calmer, though her eyes are filled with worry. As soon as she realizes no one’s fighting, she opens the door and hurries over. Danny’s a few moments behind her, his eyes still wide.

“Scott needs Deaton,” Derek says. John nods, and lets Isaac and Danny take Scott into the car. If anyone gets upset he’ll cover for him. Derek and Lydia opt to stay with him, and the reason is clear when Lydia turns to him.

“Allison called me,” she says. “To explain. She and Stiles got ambushed in the parking lot. Stiles was hit with a tranquilizer dart. It knocked him out, and she had to call an ambulance because she didn’t know what was in it or how much of it there was, and she doesn’t know how to drive a stick. Scott’s mom said she’ll keep us updated.”

John sighs and nods. “Let me go update Parrish and Cordova and do some damage control, and then we’ll get a lift to the hospital from Gina, okay?”

Lydia agrees. Derek nods, but he’s staring at the ground. He’s got Stiles’s hat pulled low over his ears again, and a flat look on his face. John sighs and goes over to Parrish and Cordova.

There’s not much he needs to do. They’ve got it handled, or at least Parrish does, and Cordova agrees to follow him. He invites them to his house the next night for dinner to explain it all. After they accept, they push him towards Gina, who agrees to give them a ride to the hospital enthusiastically. She falls in love with both Derek and Lydia immediately, and tells John that Stiles is smart to have such a good friend and a handsome boyfriend. John wants to laugh.

She drops them off with a wave and an order to tell Stiles to feel better.

“Well, no wonder Stiles has been able to get information so easily,” Lydia comments. “He probably has her wrapped around his finger.”

“She’s still relatively new,” John grimaces. Gina had started the week after Matt had taken over the station, and Stiles had made short work of sweet talking her, playing up the puppy eyes and allowing Gina to mother him. John’s convinced his son would make an excellent criminal.

Allison is sitting in the waiting room, looking impatient, and she jumps up as soon as she sees them and comes over to them.

“What happened to Scott?” she demands. “Why did Isaac howl? Where are they?”

“Scott got shot,” Derek mumbles. “Wolfsbane bullet. He’s at Deaton’s, he’ll be fine.”

Allison inspects his face for a couple of seconds, then nods. “There’s still two questions.”

“Isaac howled because he was worried about Scott and Derek,” Lydia takes over. John pretends not to notice the horribly relieved look on Derek’s face. “I guess he was signaling that he was coming to back them up? Scott howled back. Remember when Stiles told us we’d be able to feel that?”

Allison nods. She doesn’t look eager to discuss it, though, and turns to John. “Stiles’s Jeep is still in the parking lot of that store. I can’t drive a stick, but I have his keys. And his phone.”

She pulls them out of her pocket, and hands them to John. He sighs, because he can’t drive it right now either. He’s not even supposed to driving at _all_ for another week or two, until the doctor clears him for it.

“We need more cars,” John says. “And Stiles’s Jeep is going to have to stay there until someone with the ability to use both arms can drive it.”

Derek wordlessly holds out his hand. John narrows his eyes, but remembers when Stiles had been taken by the witches. Derek had driven the Jeep then, so clearly he knows how to drive stick. He nods and hands them over.

“When Danny gets back here, I’ll make him take me to get my car,” Allison volunteers. “Which reminds me, here.”

She hands a piece of paper to John. He stares at the numbers and letters, and realizes it’s a license plate number. His eyes widen.

“That guy you sent Stiles a picture of was in a car with that number,” Allison says. “Black SUV. I might have mixed up the last two numbers, I was kind of distracted.”

John nods, impressed, and pulls out his phone. He calls Parrish and relays the number to him, before hanging up and sitting back in the chairs.

Twenty minutes later, Isaac, Danny, and Scott show up. Scott still looks pale, but his arm is no longer bleeding, and he’s wearing a sweatshirt that has Danny’s last name and lacrosse number on it.

“You’re going to spread rumors,” Lydia says teasingly.

Danny gives her a grin. “Well, he’s not my type, but he’ll do.”

“Love you, too, Danny,” Scott rolls his eyes.

“I vote we sleep all weekend,” Isaac says as he collapses into a chair. “Starting now.”

“I’m in,” Scott says. Derek makes a noise of agreement.

There’s a few moments where the group finds places to stretch out. Allison settles next to Scott, with Isaac on the other side of him. Danny sits down next to Isaac. Lydia takes the seat next to Allison and pulls Derek down next to her. They all fall quiet, and John’s pretty sure they’re all asleep when Melissa walks out into the lobby and spots them. She grins, and waves him over. John gets up quietly and crosses the room.

“He’s fine,” Melissa says immediately. “There was a sedative in the tranquilizer dart, and a lot of it, but he got here fast enough that there shouldn’t be many complications. He’ll probably sleep for the rest of the night, and when he wakes he’ll probably be confused. There might be some dizziness, too, so no strenuous activity for him until at least Sunday.”

John feels relief wash over him, and he runs his good hand through his hair. “At least one of us is getting some good sleep.”

“They seem pretty fast asleep,” Melissa gestures to the pack. John glances at them, and smirks.

“They’re crashing from an adrenaline high,” he says.

“Speaking of,” Melissa says, raising an eyebrow. “Why are Scott and Derek here?”

“I told Parrish,” John says. “Scott allowed it, before you ask, and it’s really weird and slightly frustrating that we’re deferring to our children for this. While I was telling him, the lights went out at the station, and we were attacked. Scott got hit, but he’s okay, and Parrish is doing damage control. By the way, Holt’s a hunter.”

“I _knew_ he was an asshole,” Melissa mutters.

“Yeah, well,” John can’t help but smile at her tone. “They caught him and Dubois, and Allison got a license plate for the last guy, so we all know approximately who they’re looking for.”

John’s phone starts vibrating just then, and he pulls it out. It’s Parrish, and he answers it.

“Sheriff Stilinski,” he answers, somewhat apprehensive.

“We’ve apprehended the last man,” Parrish says. “Thanks to the license plate number. He was trying to leave town, but got picked up at a gas station. His name is Eric Mallery, according to his license.”

“Good work,” John says, raising his eyes to the ceiling. Relief is rushing through him again, making his knees feel weak for a second.

“Holt and Dubois have already turned on each other,” Parrish says. “Mallery’s claiming to not have any idea what’s going on, but his weapon matches the bullets from the weapon that shot at you and Chris Argent, and he has a tranq gun in his backseat.”

“You’d think they’d be better organized,” John says, feeling slightly surprised.

“Maybe their plans went south,” Parrish suggests. “Scott’s lawyer showed up, by the way. I sent her towards the hospital.”

“Good to know,” John says. “Thanks.”

“Is Stiles okay?” Parrish asks.

“He’ll be fine,” John says, running a hand down his face now. He’s feeling suddenly exhausted, like he’s been riding a high and is now crashing. He sighs and says goodbye to Parrish.

“What was that?” Melissa asks, and she looks worried.

“Good news,” John says. “They caught the last man. And they have evidence. And Scott’s lawyer is on her way here.”

Melissa nods, looking exactly how John felt. Intense relief, and some disbelief that they’d all made it through it. John has no doubt that there will be some recovery time (especially for Derek), but they’re all in one piece, and he’s not sure how it happened. He doesn’t know how their kids have managed to do this for so long and still be alive and somewhat normal. He’s just grateful that they’re all still okay.

“That’s fantastic,” Melissa finally says. “And that lawyer? Amelia? Is awesome. Remind me to thank Derek.”

John grins. “Noted. Can I see Stiles?”

“He’s in room 215,” Melissa says. “Go ahead, I’ll wake up that group and tell them.”

“Go ahead and let them up when you’ve caught them up,” John says. He’s got a feeling Derek’s going to take up permanent residence next to Stiles’s bed for the time he’s there, and Scott’s going to want to make sure he’s okay. He can’t just tell them they’re not allowed.

Melissa nods, and John heads up the stairs to the room. Stiles is the only one in the room, and he’s fast asleep on the bed. Any leftover tension John had felt melts away when he sees that Stiles looks absolutely fine. He’s got a nasal cannula in, but other than that he looks perfectly healthy. John practically falls into the chair next to the bed and allows the relief to overwhelm him for a few moments.

By the time Derek appears in the doorway several minutes later, John’s in control again. He looks up, meets Derek’s eyes, and gestures to a chair right next to him. Derek blinks, but doesn’t argue. He just sits, and gives Stiles a relieved look.

Scott comes in just then, looking worried and annoyed, and doesn’t relax until he sees Stiles. The others come in right after that, all with badly hidden relief on their faces. Melissa’s at the end of the group, and she’s shaking her head fondly. It’s quiet for a few seconds while they all relax, and then suddenly everyone’s telling stories. Allison tells the story of what happened to her and Stiles, and then Scott tells the story of what happened to them at the station. Danny reenacts the drive to the station, and soon they’re all laughing.

That’s when Amelia Walters shows up, and Scott and Melissa go with her, as Melissa’s shift is ending. Danny decides to go get food, and Lydia and Allison go with him to get their cars. Isaac’s fast asleep on a chair in the corner of the room, and that leaves Derek and John alone in the room.

Despite the short nap he’d caught in the waiting room, Derek looks utterly exhausted. He’s still keyed up, though, and John can see it. He stretches out himself, feeling the familiar aches from spending the night in his office. He doesn’t know if him relaxing or if him guarding the door will make Derek feel better, so he settles for leaning back in the chair and watching the door.

It takes a while, but eventually Derek ends up relaxing enough to sleep again, and falls asleep with his head on the bed next to Stiles, the top of his head pressed against Stiles’s side. John can’t resist the moment and pulls his phone out. He takes a picture, then sits back and eventually drifts off himself.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Okay, so there's one more chapter after this that, barring emergencies, should be up tomorrow, but it's sort of an epilogue. Holy crap, this fic is so much longer than it was supposed to be in the beginning. I was thinking maybe eight chapters? And instead it's twenty. That just figures.
> 
> Does anyone else wonder what, if anything, Stiles didn't tell his dad when he gave him the full story? 'Cause I feel like there's probably a lot of it.
> 
> (Also headcanons galore coming up, I am not sorry at all.)
> 
> My [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

Stiles _hates_ hospitals, like with a fiery passion. They drag up too many memories, and he usually just deals with it, but then, he’s not usually the one in the hospital. When _he’s_ in the hospital, it’s so much worse. His dad gets this look on his face, like he’s been terrified, and Stiles feel horribly guilty no matter the reason he’s there. Luckily, despite the craziness that is his life, he doesn’t get stuck in the hospital very often.

He can tell he is right now, though he’s not sure why. He can’t remember what was going on before. The last thing he remembers is wanting to kill Coach at practice and being dragged away by Danny. After that, it’s a just a blank, no matter how hard he strains his memory.

He doesn’t hurt anywhere. That could a good sign. Or a bad sign, depending on how many drugs he’s on. He doesn’t think he’s hurt, though. He also doesn’t think anyone is in the room with him, which is disconcerting, and he opens his eyes.

There is indeed no one in the room with him, although his dad’s jacket is on the chair next to the bed. He stares at it for a couple of seconds, and hears a toilet flush. He hears water run, and then a door opens. Stiles turns his head toward it.

“Hey, you’re awake!” his dad says, walking in. Stiles blinks at him. “Are you really awake this time?”

“What?” Stiles tries to ask, but his mouth is dry. He grimaces.

“You woke up earlier,” his dad says while he reaches for the ‘call nurse’ button. “But you weren’t really awake. You proclaimed your love for Mordin -- apparently a video game character? -- and then called Scott a ‘fuckstick.’”

Stiles laughs at that, because he’s never used the term ‘fuckstick’ before, but he’s now adding it to his vocabulary. Also, of course he loves Mordin. Who doesn’t love Mordin? He’s the very model of a scientist Salarian. Stiles tells his dad so as the nurse walks in, and his dad just smiles at him as the nurse starts to ask him questions.

He answers all her questions, and gets a cup of ice chips for his troubles. She leaves, and Stiles looks at his dad. He doesn’t look stressed, nor does he have that shaky-relieved look that Stiles had been expecting. He’s extremely confused and says, “What happened? And where is everyone?”

“You were hit with a tranquilizer dart,” his dad says. “And various places. It’s Saturday morning now, just after eleven. You slept right through the night.”

Stiles winces and opens his mouth, but his dad holds up a hand to stop him.

“You’ve missed a lot, actually. I’ll try to keep it short so I don’t overwhelm you. Holt was a hunter.”

“ _That’s_ why he made Derek so uncomfortable!” Stiles says. “That dick.”

He’s angry, and wants to be angrier, but his dad continues without letting him dwell on it.

“I told Parrish about werewolves -- Scott said okay -- and the station got attacked. Scott got shot, he’s fine, and Derek didn’t get hurt at all, although he did have a panic attack. We got out, Holt and Dubois got arrested and turned on each other. Apparently they weren’t friends.”

“Allison was with you when you got hit with the dart,” his dad continues. “And she got the license plate of the third guy. His name is Eric Mallery, and he’s in custody now. Allison was also smart enough to warn the EMTs to keep the dart, and it matched a gun in the back of his car, as did the bullets that were shot at me and Chris.”

“So they’re all in custody?” Stiles asks slowly, hardly daring to believe it.

“With evidence,” his dad nods. Stiles lets out a sigh of relief and slumps against his pillow.

“As for where everyone is,” his dad says. “Allison and her dad are having some sort of Skype meeting with other hunters. Something about rebuilding the Argent name. Scott and his mom are talking to his lawyer to figure out what they need to do now. Danny’s parents wanted him home, and Lydia and Derek went to go pick up your Jeep, because Allison had to leave it in a parking lot to get you here.”

Stiles thinks that over for a second and nods. “Okay. When can I get out of here?”

“Good question,” his dad says. “I have no idea. But tonight, I have a dinner set up with Parrish and Cordova. I’m supposed to explain what I know to them. And when you’re out of here, and everything’s calmer, _you’re_ going to tell me everything you know. We agreed, no more secrets, remember?”

Stiles makes a face. “I know. The Gerard thing -- it was insulting, and upsetting, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. Erica and Boyd knew about it, but that was because they were in the basement, too.”

And that’s a pleasant memory, because that’s the last time Stiles saw Erica alive. It’s not the first time he’s thought about that, but it’s still just as upsetting as the last time. He closes his eyes for a brief second, then looks at his dad, who is watching him.

“That’s not the only thing you didn’t tell me,” his dad says carefully. Stiles sighs, because he’d tried, he really had, but there were things he wasn’t good at talking about. Like the motel, and the day before that, and Lydia’s party, and the warehouse with Jackson, and most of the night at the hospital, and basically everything that had happened when his dad had been taken. He’s not good at talking about any of it, because he doesn’t want to think about it. Every time he thinks about it, he remembers how he’d felt during those times, and he really doesn’t like that feeling.

Which is what he’s feeling now, and he closes his eyes again and forces himself to calm down. Having a panic attack while stuck in the hospital is not an option.

His dad doesn’t say anything, but he puts his hand on Stiles’s shoulder, and Stiles focuses on it, to ground himself. Finally, he’s able to open his eyes, and he says, “Okay. But there’s some stuff…I might, you know. Be really bad at talking about.”

And now his dad looks worried, and Stiles wants to bang his head into a wall. “It’s not like all horrible, or anything,” he pauses and winces. “Okay, some of it is. But the rest of it, I just can’t deal with the feeling?” he sighs. “I felt useless.”

In the spirit of honesty, he adds, “It kind of terrified me, so I don’t really like to think about it. But I’ll tell you about it, you’ll just have to be...patient?”

His dad looks less worried now, and more sympathetic. He pats Stiles’s shoulder. “We’ll take it slow, okay?”

Stiles nods.

“He’s awake!” Scott’s voice says brightly from the door, and Stiles turns his head to see Scott heading to the end of Stiles’s bed. Stiles narrows his eyes at Scott, because he’s pretty sure Scott heard most of that, but Scott just jumps up onto the bed and immediately makes himself at home.

Stiles decides it doesn’t matter, because it’s _Scott_ , so he just shakes his head and asks, “Why are you so cheery?”

“Derek’s lawyer got me out of _everything_ ,” Scott says, looking thrilled. “I don’t even have to go to court if I don’t want to. She is _awesome_.”

“She is one scary woman,” Stiles’s dad comments, and he shakes his head.

“Really?” Stiles asks, interested. He hasn’t had the chance to meet her yet, although Derek had mentioned something to him about her being the best he could find.

“Dude,” Scott says. “She is legitimately She-Hulk, in like, the best way possible.”

“Isn’t her last name Walters?” Stiles asks suspiciously.

Scott snorts, but before he can respond, Derek comes through the door. He wordlessly hands Scott a McDonalds bag and looks at Stiles, his somewhat grumpy expression turning to one of relief. Stiles waves.

“Yes, thank you!” Scott says, and opens the bag.

“No eating on the bed, you dick,” Stiles says, grinning at Derek. “Unless you have enough to share.”

“You’re not allowed to eat anything the doctor doesn’t approve of,” his dad says.

“I’ll be sure to remember that next time you complain about vegetables,” Stiles replies. His dad smacks him gently on the side of the head. Scott snorts and scrambles off the bed with his McDonalds. Derek immediately sits where Scott had been.

“I knew that was going to happen,” Scott complains good-naturedly, sitting across the room.

“ _Bite_ me!” Stiles gives him a cheeky grin.

“You and werewolf powers would be a horrible combination,” Scott says.

“I would be an _awesome_ werewolf,” Stiles says defensively.

“If you say so,” Scott doesn’t even look at him. Stiles mock-glares at him for a second before breaking. He’s discussed this in-depth with Scott before. He doesn’t want to be a werewolf, and aside from a last resort involving imminent death and no other cure, he won’t ever be one. Scott knows this, and agrees with it, and so they feel comfortable joking about it.

Stiles leans back against his pillow again and looks at Derek, who is quietly playing with what looks like a new phone. Derek looks like he got some sleep and took a shower. He’s shaved down to his usual stubble, and wearing different clothing, although he’s still got Stiles’s hat on his head. Stiles isn’t getting that back, he just knows it. He doesn’t mind.

The rest of the pack pop in and out, as the day passes. Isaac looks so much better today, which is a relief. Allison looks exhausted, but is in good spirits. Danny looks somewhat amazed, which is quite possibly the most hilarious expression his face has ever worn in Stiles’s opinion. Lydia’s clearly in a good mood when she shows up, and relays to him that when she’d checked their grades for their science project, it had been an A.

“Already?” Stiles asks, startled. “But that was just yesterday, wasn’t it? _Which_ Saturday is it?”

Scott starts to laugh and has to bury his face in his hands, and even Derek’s grinning, still seated at the end of Stiles’s bed. Lydia just gives him a smile and turns around, leaving the room.

It’s nearly four o’clock when the doctor comes into Stiles’s room. She checks him over, and Derek’s forced to leave his seat, but the doctor says to his dad that he’s allowed to leave. Stiles jumps at the chance to leave, and his dad does the paperwork. Stiles is forced into a wheelchair, which Derek pushes out of the hospital, and is then put in the backseat of his Jeep.

“How did this happen?” he asks Scott, who is sitting next to him. “I’m in the backseat of my own car that my boyfriend is driving with my dad in the front seat. _How_?”

Scott shrugs. He looks somewhat amused, and Stiles just makes a face at him before turning to stare out the window.

Stiles is allowed to walk into the house on his own, which is a surprise (he’d almost been looking forward to Derek carrying him). He makes it most of the way just fine, but has a dizzy spell just as they get in the door. Derek supports him to the couch and pushes him down on it. He’s told under no circumstances is he allowed to leave the couch, much to his irritation.

Derek sits down next to Stiles, and holds his hand. Stiles can tell Derek’s not in a talkative mood, and wonders if he’s okay. He seems calm for the moment over the pack bond, but Stiles remembers his dad mentioning Derek having a panic attack, and frowns.

“Stiles, stop it,” Scott cuts his thoughts off. “No thinking. We’re on vacation.”

Stiles laughs. “To Hawaii?”

“I _wish_ ,” Scott grumbles.

“I’ve been,” Derek says quietly. “It’s amazing.”

“I’m jealous,” Stiles sighs. “Too bad I won’t go that far for college.”

“What if all of us went?” Scott seems to be seriously considering it.

“What about Derek?” Stiles responds.

“He can come, too,” Scott raises an eyebrow, clearly confused.

“I meant he has a job,” Stiles raises an eyebrow back. Scott makes a face at him.

“Hawaii’s nice,” Derek muses. “I wouldn’t mind moving there.”

“Take me with you,” Stiles’s dad says, coming out of the kitchen. “I used to surf.”

“He used to be good at it, too,” Stiles informs Derek, because Scott’s heard this story before.

“That I was,” his dad nods. “I liked to show off.”

“Is that where Stiles gets it from?” Scott asks innocently. Stiles flips him off.

“One day while in college, I was showing off for a group of college girls,” Stiles’s dad says to Derek. “And when I went to talk to them, one of them stood up and said, ‘Is that all you got?’ and proceeded to show me up. I was smitten immediately.”

“And proceeded to woo her,” Stiles says. “Terribly.”

“I was not very good at that,” his dad agrees, laughing softly. “She was patient with me, though, and on our first date, when I got nervous, she told me upfront that I had no reason to be nervous, because she really liked me. Which only made me more nervous. Eventually, I calmed down, in time to graduate college, and asked her to marry me the day of graduation.”

Stiles closes his eyes, because they don’t talk about his mom much, but he always loves how their story is like an age-old love story. It’s kind of cheesy, but Stiles doesn’t care. He’s glad to hear the story again, because it’s been a really long time it’s been told. Sometimes he misses his mom so much it hurts, but he wants to hear the stories again. He wants to memorize every detail, and write them down so he never forgets them. He’s never asked his dad, though, because he doesn’t want to hurt him. Maybe now they’ve got to the point where they can talk about her again.

Derek squeezes his hand, and Stiles squeezes back, and opens his eyes. His dad is looking at the picture on the wall, the one of just his mom. It’s great picture. His mom is standing out in the rain. She’s wearing a skirt, and has clearly been spinning from the way her skirt and hair are moving. Stiles remembers the day it was taken. It had been raining constantly for the past couple of days, and Stiles had been bored out of his mind. His mom had come and got him, and said to him, “Want to go dance in the rain?”

Stiles had agreed, and they’d ran outside. Stiles’s dad had come out shortly afterwards, holding the camera in one hand, and waving at them with the other. Stiles had ran to the deck, wanting to to pull his dad out there with them, and that was when his dad had snapped the picture of his mom. It’s Stiles’s favorite picture of her. She was always so happy and full of life, and the picture captures that side of her perfectly. He’s glad to have that piece of her.

Stiles clears his throat and says, “I’m hungry, and some asshole ate McDonalds in front of me without sharing. What are we having for dinner?”

“I don’t know,” his dad answers, tearing his gaze away from the picture. “Parrish and Cordova are coming.”

“I can make spaghetti,” Derek offers.

“Oh, God, Dad, his spaghetti is the best,” Stiles says. “Better than mine. Please say yes.”

His dad laughs. “If Derek wants to cook for us, I’m not going to argue.”

“Well, now I’m staying,” Scott says brightly. “Do you mind if my mom comes over, too?”

“She’s always welcome here,” Stiles’s dad says, absentmindedly ruffling Stiles’s hair. Stiles just grins and wiggles his eyebrows at Scott, who rolls his eyes.

Parrish and Cordova get there early. Stiles is subjected to five minutes of Parrish giving him suggestive winks and nodding at Derek, and Cordova drilling him questions about what happened to him. Then, when they’re both satisfied, Stiles’s dad sits down and starts explaining the story. Stiles and Scott jump in to fill in any holes. Stiles even manages to talk about Gerard taking him hostage without too many problems, and Scott tells the story of Lydia’s party and the warehouse so Stiles doesn’t have to (this does earn Stiles a look from his dad; he just gives him an apologetic look back).

Melissa gets there as they start telling Parrish and Cordova about the Alpha pack and the sacrifices. Derek finishes cooking around that time, so the conversation is moved to the Stilinski dining table. It’s somewhat small, only meant for four people, but the seven of them make themselves fit. Stiles is squeezed between his dad and Derek, not that he minds.

Scott and Stiles are still in agreement to not talk about the motel, and Derek wasn’t there, so he can’t bring it up, so they skip the field trip altogether. By default, they don’t bring up Jennifer if they can help it, and don’t mention her relationship with Derek at all. They _do_ talk about the hospital, although Scott and Stiles don’t mention what happened on the roof beyond saying Scott had gone with Deucalion. Then they get to the two days Stiles’s dad and Melissa had been missing, and Stiles realizes that for those two days, all of them had been separated. Scott’s telling them what he’d been doing and Derek had already done so, so _he’s_ gonna have to talk about it, from when he’d left the hospital to when he and Deaton had gone to meet up with Scott. He’s not sure he can.

Actually, he _knows_ he can’t, at least not with all of them there, because when they all turn to look at him, he can’t speak. He makes a choked noise, then shakes his head. He’d been _so sure_ that he was never going to see his dad again, _so sure_ that he was going to end up alone, he can’t go back to the place to talk about it. Not right now, when he’s still on edge.

No one pushes it, and he breathes a sigh of relief when Scott picks the story back up at when Deaton and Stiles had met up with him. He takes another bite of his spaghetti and forces himself to swallow past the lump in his throat, and when Derek offers his hand, grips it like a lifeline.

By the end of dinner, Parrish and Cordova are mostly caught up, and Stiles has calmed down. He hasn’t said much, but he hasn’t needed to, which is a relief. Scott, Melissa, and Stiles’s dad mostly tell the story of Stiles being taken by the witches, which is good, because Stiles still has absolutely no memory of that incident beyond what the others have told him. Then Stiles’s dad is elected to explain what had happened for the past week, and Stiles decides to take Derek into the kitchen to wash the dishes (and maybe make out a bit; it’s been a shitty week and they haven’t had a chance in a while, Stiles feels no shame).

Parrish and Cordova leave after Stiles’s dad finishes, and Melissa and Scott leave shortly after that. Derek looks slightly lost, like he’s not sure exactly if he’s supposed to stay or go, and looks so pathetic that Stiles’s dad finally sighs and says, “You can stay here, Derek, don’t worry about it.”

So Stiles drags Derek up to his room, and insists on putting on Tangled. It takes less than ten minutes for Derek to fall asleep, on his side, pressed up against Stiles. Stiles would have laughed and maybe taken a picture, but he’s too tired, and is asleep minutes later.


	20. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, holy crap, it's the final chapter of Out of the Dark. I can't believe it. Why is it so long, why did that happen?
> 
> So to all of you who have been reading, thank you so much. Seriously. Especially to those who left kudos, and comments. Even if I didn't respond to your comments, I really, really, really appreciate them.
> 
> (See the notes at the end for future plans regarding the Shutter verse.)
> 
> Beta'd by [whatthehale](archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehale)!

It takes two weeks for Peter’s body to be released to Derek.

Stiles knows Derek won’t want to make a big deal of it, and won’t ask any of them for it, so he sets up a service on his own. He doesn’t hide it from Derek, but doesn’t let Derek talk him out of anything. He didn’t care much for Peter, but he _was_ Derek’s family.

Stiles invites Cora down, and she comes with several members of her pack. They’re friendly and smart, and Lydia immediately becomes best friends with them. Scott and her Alpha strike up a friendship, and they create an alliance.

Parrish and Cordova are there. They’re both solemn and respectful, though they look exhausted. They’ve been working hard to close this case, and have finally reached a point where they’re able to take it to trial.

The pack is all there, as is Melissa, Chris, and Stiles’s dad. They all stand in a semicircle around the grave. Stiles is glad to know that Derek isn’t burying Peter like he buried Laura, with a spiral for revenge. Instead, Peter’s body is being buried like anyone else would be, in a cemetery with his family.

Stiles is surprised how affected by this death he is. He’s not sure if he’s sad because it’s Peter, or because Derek and Cora have lost more family, but he’s not going to inspect it too closely. He watches as Peter’s coffin is lowered into the ground. Derek had built the coffin, and the grave had been dug by Isaac (he’s really good at it, which is one of the strangest skills Stiles has ever heard of). The headstone had been created by Cora, and read ‘Uncle Peter: May you finally be at peace.’

Stiles finally learns how old Peter is, although when he asks if it’s his real birth year, Cora and Derek are both evasive. He decides he doesn’t actually care, and reaches down and grabs Derek’s hand. Derek doesn’t turn to look at him, but he does nod slightly. He’s got his other arm around Cora. She’s looking at the headstone and at nothing else.

_Kate, Gerard, may you both burn in hell for the rest of eternity._

It’s more merciful than Stiles wants to be.

There’s no preacher, because when Stiles had asked, Derek had actually laughed at the idea. Peter, he explained, never wanted a preacher at anything. Especially not one who doesn’t know about werewolves. Stiles had agreed, and he’d decided no one would officiate. It would be way too much to explain, anyway.

The coffin hits the bottom, and Stiles clears his throat. Before he can say anything, Scott steps forward and says, “Peter, you turned me without my permission. I can’t say I’d take the bite again, nor that it was right, but it changed my life and gave me my pack. And you saved me and my pack before you died.”

“So, fuck you, and thank you,” Stiles finishes for him, and there’s a general laugh among the group. Derek’s got a small smile on his face, but there’s a dark look in his eyes.

Chris clears his throat. “I know I can never make up for what my sister and father did, but for what it’s worth, I am sincerely sorry. They took lives, and family, and innocence, and peace, and there’s nothing that makes that right.”

Stiles looks at Derek, who has his eyes closed lightly. He can feel his grief, and leans toward him, pressing their shoulders together as Cora opens her mouth.

“I know I was gone for six years, and you were different when I came back, but you’ll always be Uncle Peter in my mind.”

That’s all she says. It seems to be all she can say. Derek doesn’t seem to be able to speak, but after a few moments, he says in a quiet tone, “I’m sorry, Peter. I’m so sorry.”

Derek doesn’t speak beyond that, and Stiles gets the weird urge to say something, so he opens his mouth and prays to God that he’s not about to piss anyone off.

“He was a Mac guy,” is the first thing that comes out, and wow, what a way to start. He can just feel the weird looks he’s getting. “He really ruined the whole werewolf mystique thing. He was manipulative, and he was a good strategist, and I don’t know if I was the bigger smartass or if he was. And he was a sneaky asshole, and in a weird way, I respected that. One mischief maker to another, I guess. He was dramatic as fuck, and probably never actually told the entire truth. And I’m sorry he was killed. Rest in peace, Peter, and don’t haunt me.”

Derek snorts at that, and Stiles’s dad cuffs him on the back of the head. Stiles glances at Cora, who is smiling, even though there are tears falling from her eyes, and then at Derek, who has his eyes closed. He’s glad he said something, even though it didn’t come out completely right, because he’d have felt bad if he hadn’t.

Slowly, everyone seems to realize there’s no reason to be standing at the grave anymore, and they start to wander off. Stiles watches as his dad walks away with Melissa. Chris goes on his own. Parrish and Cordova leave at the same time. Scott and Allison walk off, holding hands (of _course_ ). Isaac pulls Cora away with him. Lydia and Danny are both talking to members of Cora’s pack.

That leaves Stiles and Derek standing at the grave. Derek doesn’t seem to want to move, his gaze transfixed on the gravestone. Stiles just stands next to him, leaning up against him again.

“You would have liked him,” Derek says suddenly. “Before the fire, I mean. You and he would have had the _weirdest_ conversations, and none of us would have been able to keep up.”

Stiles doesn’t say anything, just nods. He can sense Derek just needs to talk, and isn’t going to stop him.

“My entire family would have loved you,” Derek continues. “My mom and you would have probably butted heads a bit. You have a sort of Alpha personality. But she would have respected your intelligence. My dad would have liked how loyal you are. My nana -- don’t even get me started. The two of you would have literally made everyone else crazy. Laura would have adopted you the second she met you. Peter’s wife Alicia would have mothered you, possibly more than you wanted to be. My younger brother Thomas would have believed that you hung the freaking moon. My little cousins would have followed you around everywhere. And the fact that I don’t have the chance to introduce you --,” he breaks off in a noise that’s a mix between anger and sorrow, and Stiles turns so he can wrap his other arm around Derek, hugging him instead. Derek doesn’t move to hug him back, but he does relax slightly.

They stay that way for a long time, so long Stiles’s leg starts to ache from the way he’s leaning on it. Stiles isn’t going to move until Derek’s ready to, though, and that takes a long time. When he finally does, it’s to hug Stiles back, and then turn back to the grave.

“See you, Uncle Peter,” Derek says, and turns, pulling Stiles with him.

The parking lot is still full with everyone, because they’re all supposed to go to the deli for food afterwards. No one seems upset at having to wait, though, and they split into cars. Stiles drives Derek, Isaac, and Cora. Isaac’s in the front seat, but he’s turned towards the back talking to Cora, and Stiles sees Derek grimace in the mirror. He tries his best not to laugh.

The deli is empty of customers when they get there, which is lucky. The employees had been warned and Stiles had called in their order earlier, so they’re not surprised when a group of people suddenly enter the building wearing funeral clothes. They get their order, push several tables together, and sit down.

It takes a while for the chatter to get going, but eventually it does. Derek’s EMT class starts in a week, and he’s looking forward to it. Stiles has a month left of being a junior, which is slightly terrifying, and he, along with Scott, Isaac, and Allison, are taking the PSAT the next weekend (Lydia and Danny have already taken it, the overachievers). They’re all starting to talk about college, which is an interesting dilemma with the pack due to their diverse interests. Stiles wants to go into criminal justice, or maybe forensics. Scott’s going to be a vet, no question. Isaac doesn’t really know what he wants right now. Allison’s going to go for her Gen. Ed. and see what happens after that. Lydia is planning on taking over the world of physics, and Danny wants to do computer science. Derek’s mentioned quietly to Stiles something about going back and taking a few classes.

It’s a lot of things to think about at the moment, and Stiles just wants some time to relax. He can’t wait for summer, especially when Derek has free time from his EMT course. They’re planning on taking a trip to Disneyland, since they live somewhat close, and Scott, Isaac, Allison, and Derek have never been. Stiles, Danny, and Lydia have all been, although Stiles has only been once, and so they’ve decided to go as a pack. Melissa’s coming with them, which is fine by Stiles. He’s surprised Chris hasn’t demanded to come with, although he suspects that’s because Chris is already planning on stalking them.

Movie nights have been reinstated, and the order has been shaken up since they added a new pack member. It’s weird having an odd number of pack members, but it’s kind of fun having another person who speaks science there (also, Danny helped pick out a new wardrobe for Stiles; he’s waiting until senior year to pull it out, but when he does, he’s going to have so much fun).

Derek’s technically moved into the Stilinski house now, because he doesn’t like to be alone. Stiles’s dad doesn’t seem to mind it, and Stiles prefers it, because Derek’s clearly not okay. He falls quiet at random times, for no discernable reason. Sometimes, Stiles will come into a room to see him panicking, or just staring at the wall. He doesn’t know what exactly happened to him, because Derek hasn’t shared yet. Stiles won’t make him if he doesn’t want to. Maybe someday he’ll be okay with telling Stiles, or someone else, but for now Stiles isn’t going to push it.

They still get _plenty_ of use out of the apartment, though, because it’s become pack central. It’s where they all go to study, and eat, and hang out. They had to make another key for Danny, but no one minds.

Stiles feels like life is finally getting back to normal for them, and fervently hopes he doesn’t jinx it by thinking that way. He just wants to graduate high school without having to worry about dying, or his boyfriend or best friend dying constantly.

Is that too much to ask?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (ahahahaha Stiles you're so funny)
> 
> So the Shutter verse is not done. I still have plans for it. I don't know how long I plan to keep it going, but it might be for a ridiculously long time and you all might be sick to death of it by the time I finish it. Which, I hope not. But...
> 
> There's definitely a fluffly fic coming after this one, and after that I think I'm starting a one-shot collection, involving for sure Stiles and Derek's second date, and various other scenes throughout the 'verse that may or may not include Sterek, I don't know yet. There will be more fics coming for sure, though.
> 
> In the meantime, come follow my [tumblr](http://the-bookkeepers.tumblr.com/), where I have much fun involving Teen Wolf and also a lot of other things. And again, thanks for reading!


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